Say you were reversing your car on a side street in New York City and you hear a thud. Crap. You just hit a parked car. You walk out and check out the damage. It's not horrible, but significant enough. You look around. No cars on the streets, no pedestrians in range who could have seen your deed. Now, do you think to yourself: "Wow. I am lucky. No witnesses, I will drive away scott free! I mean come on, this is NYC. If you park on the street, you know there is always that chance of getting hit. Deal with it buddy!" Or, do you say to yourself "Nobody saw me, but I saw me. And this is wrong. If I don't leave a note, I will feel guilty." What would you do? Would you leave a note??
To be honest. If it were me. I would probably just drive off! I would think that 90% of people would do the same. But lucky for me, the guy who hit my parked car had a conscience, and he left a note on my windshield! It read something like "Hi. I accidently hit your car. I am very sorry. Please call me and we can arrange reimbursment for your damages. Again I am so sorry!" He left his phone number. I called him, and arranged his insurance to pay for it. My first thought was that there is no way this guy is from New York. I mean he must have been raised in the midwest or something right? Such is the cynicism of us New Yorkers who cannot believe a decent conscience can actually exist in the city. I think if you are TOO nice, you may not make it in New York, at least not for more than a couple of years. In order to deal with the grumpy ones and asshles in New York, you gotta have the ability to dish out on occasion as well. But the few who really are just too nice, probably just move to California.
No seriously, I think they do. I was in San Diego for a Conference last week with some coworkers, and and no matter where we went, everyone was so nice. I don't think we found one asshole or even a rude or angry person anywhere. It was almost eerie. How can this be? How can everyone be happy and smiling all the time? At one point we even tried to instigate a little bit of negative emotion, like maybe some road rage by trying to make a turn on the road to block someone, or cut someone off. But that didn't even work, they just waved and apologized like it was on them. I felt like we were in some made up movie, like the Truman Show. Or maybe cities populated with a majority of genuinenly nice and happy people really do eixst! It was certainly refreshing dealing with all the positive energy in San Diego. Though I'll admit, when I arrived back in NYC and hoped into a yellow cab as the driver cursed off and abused the cabbie behind him, it brought a smile to my face. Home sweet home.
But it is nice to see that even amidst the city of NYC, filled with assholes, some nice people do exist-- like the guy who hit my car and left a note. It was probably just a lucky break this time. Because the guy who was driving the truck that sideswiped my parked car on first avenue a year or so back, causing about $3500 of damage did not leave a note on my car--only the remnants of my sideview mirror and door handle. Don't think he's moving to San Diego anytime soon...
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