how it oughta be

How It Oughta To Be

Lately, we hear a lot on the news about road rage, traffic jams,
and people not caring about anyone else but as a very good friend
of mine would say, “That’s not how it oughta be”.
He’s the kind of guy we all hope we run into when we have a flat tire
or find out that our gas gauge really wasn’t lying to us after all.

He keeps a can of gasoline in the back of his pick-up truck
along with jumper cables, a fire extinguisher, and a few other tools.
He doesn’t normally travel very far from home but just takes
these things along as a matter of course when he has an errand
to run or supplies to pick up in town.

Many times he has stopped along the road
and put some gas in someone’s empty tank
or jump started somebody’s car for them in a parking lot.

If folks try to pay him for what he does, he thinks it’s polite of them
to offer but he would just say, “Naw, you don’t owe me nothin’, just
pass on the favor and give somebody else a hand along the way.”

I’m writing about this because he would never tell you himself.
If you were to praise his efforts, he’d just say,
“It ain’t nothin’ to write home about.”

His attitude stems from the way he was raised. He was taught
that when somebody’s having trouble, you help if you can.
It was just “how it oughta be” and that was that!

This way of life was passed down to him by his parents and
passed to them by his grandparents. I wonder how many
parents are passing down “love thy neighbor” to their
children these days so it will keep being passed along.
Children need an example to follow.

Who knows, maybe somebody will read this and
follow my friend’s example in helping other people
because… well, it’s just “How it oughta be!”