Better Late Than Never

To my son Tommy,

Today as I walked out of the house, I had pushed it to the last possible second to make it to church on time.  I had tried to get you up earlier but you weren't having it.  So I lingered around the house as much as I could in hopes that you would awaken from your slumber so I could give you a kiss before I headed off to church then to work.

As I walked out the door, I looked down the sidewalk a bit and saw a bunch of papers and such thrown around and really out of place.  I thought about just ignoring this distraction, figuring someone had littered or the garbage men had spilled a can, but I decided to do the right thing and go over investigate and pick up whatever it was.  Turns out it was some of the contents of a wallet, and id card, some pictures of kids or grandkids, a safeway card and such.  Alarm bells went off in my head and I grabbed your mother from inside to see what we should do.  She decided we should pick up the stuff out of the rain and she would call the police and try and track down the name.  She graciously said she would handle it and that I could head out.

Doing the right thing had made me late for church.  I was faced with the decision, do I skip it because I am late or do I sneak in after it started.  I wasn't terribly late, but late enough.  I dread that feeling when you walk in somewhere late and it feels like every eye has turned to you.  You feel horrible and feel like you just ruined everyone's day.  The reality is probably so far from this feeling of dread that I have.  Most don't bother even looking to see who came in late and the majority that do are just glad you came.  Anyone that is too put off by a late entrance, might really have to check their moral compass anyhow.  So I decided to suck it up and walk in late.

If you are ever faced with the choice of attending late or skipping it entirely, always pick attending late, especially if you are late because you helped someone else or did the right thing.  You will have enough sense to minimize your impact upon entering and not actively drawing attention to yourself, but don't let a few minutes keep you from your obligation or your enjoyment of attending an event.  Just realize you will have a few glances and that is ok.  I could easily deal with these today because I was not at church for anyone else but myself and the reason I was late was because I did the right thing.

As for the contents of the stolen wallet, your mother called the police and they picked it up.  She got a name off one of the identification cards, tracked down the owner, and learned that this lady had her car broken into.  She found out where the lady lived and that gave her a directionality to search for other things.  She walked the sidewalks and found the lady's cellphone which was surprisingly in good working order.  The lady came with her son to help her and was given the police officers info to retrieve their stuff.  They continued the search your mom started while your mom went off to school.  I got the ball rolling with the sacrifice of a few minutes, but your mother is the real hero with her efforts and she always knows and does the right thing to help others.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo