The first car I bought was a red Jeep Cherokee Sport, and I loved her. She had the cool sports rack on top I never needed and a magic window washer fluid dispenser on the back window that shot straight back instead of up on the window. My “Goonies’ slick shoes,” as I called it, nearly blinded James Murphy once, but never any bad guys.
After many years together, I gave my red jeep to an international friend who was making a new life for herself here in the States and lost track of it. Even today, if I see an old red Jeep Cherokee, I’m drawn to it, looking closely to see if there is a faded JCHS parking sticker on the lower left corner of the back window. Perhaps it’s all scrapped by now, but I prefer to think of her enjoying final grand adventures on dusty back roads.
When I bought that red jeep, I began seeing red jeeps everywhere. I’ve never been an influencer, so the increased sightings were certainly not a result of my actions. They were a result of my awareness. Before I owned one, I never noticed them because I wasn’t looking for them. But once I owned one, I saw them everywhere.
Maybe life is like this, too.
Maybe our thoughts, newsfeeds, and hearts are so full of the hard, heavy, heartbreaking, and hopeless that we’ve trained ourselves only to see that. Everywhere we look – more hard, heavy, heartbreaking hopelessness. It is all we see. It is all we expect to see.
But maybe there is good, too: more goodness and kindness, compassion and joy, love and hope than we realize if we look for it. It can be so small, almost invisible, unless we pay attention.
Held doors and kind texts.
Smiles that greet, eyes that meet.
Benefits of doubt and assuming best intentions.
A “How are you?” that won’t settle for “fine” but asks, “Tell me more.”
There will always be other cars on the road and in the lots among the red jeeps. There will always be hard and heartbreaking among the good, too.
But maybe there are a lot more red Jeeps than we think if we look for them.
I hope we all see a few more red jeeps tomorrow. I know I’ll be looking. If you’re near me, I might make an X on your arm, punch you hard, and shout, “RED JEEP!” You’re welcome to do the same.
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