Fighting the virus

My dear Noah has been struggling with a virus. He is the kind of kid who cannot shake an illness once it gets a hold on him, and one has had a hold on him all week. He is a great sick person, though. He doesn’t really complain and he just chills – not to mention that he likes to sit close to his mother when ill (not that I am pleased when he is sick, but as he gets older these moments are fewer and fewer).

So, yesterday we went back to the doctor for another check of his lungs. It was a very cold day and there was not an available parking spot near the office door. We parked further down the lot and jumped out.

Noah said, “Look, Mom,” from his side of the car and I walked over to see what had his attention. There was a note stuck into the drivers’ window of the car parked next to ours. It read:

“Just wanted to let you know that I noticed your rear right tire is terribly low on air. I didn’t want you have any trouble. Be careful and take care.”

That was it.

Noah looked at me and smiled. “That was nice of someone, wasn’t it?” he asked.

Sometimes I hear about how sick the world is, and I know it’s true on many levels. There is a selfishness in all of us, a propensity to self-preserve instead of serve. Even our economic meltdown was caused, in part, by too much taking and not enough giving. I guess there is some sickness and dysfunction in all of us.

Yet I think of the cold, of the effort to find a piece of paper and a pen, of the time it took to write the note, of the lovely tone it was written in, and I smile too.

What a great sick person, huh?