Celebrating Failures

My husband tells a story about a family friend whose home was located on a dangerous curve in the road. Routinely, cars would barrel around the corner near their home, and occasionally a driver would lose control and slide off the road and into the family’s mailbox. Sometimes they would go a year or two without losing their mailbox, and other years the homeowners replaced it multiple times.  The event was common enough that they knew what to expect from the person behind the wheel – distress, apologies, and shaken nerves. The parents would make sure no one was hurt and sit with the car’s occupants and wait for the tow truck.

They never complained about losing another mailbox. They never lectured the driver about paying better attention to the curve in the road. They just chalked the accident up to another life experience.

One day, for reasons not fully understood, the family decided to open a bottle of champagne and celebrate the “successful mailbox hit” with the shaken driver.

The gesture was well received and the family decided to “celebrate” every successful hit.  They made a point always to  have champagne on ice in case there should be an unexpected front yard visitor.

Taking out the mailbox on the road became an exclusive, albeit inconvenient, club.

I love this thinking!

How different would life be if we simply sat beside people in the middle of their failures and lightened the mood?  How wonderful it would be to accept people as we found them, in the midst of brokenness and mess!

No one AIMS for mailboxes, but sometimes life’s curves throw us off the road regardless.

I think it’s wise to hold the complaints, judging, and lectures and figure out how to help the person on the side of the road.