Latest / Wanzology / You Just Never Know...
Transcript
- You Just Never Know Yaw-yi-yi yaw yaw yaw ya!! Yi yaw yaw-yi yaw yi yaaaaaaaaaw!!! Tequila!!! Hey, what's happening? How you doing out there? Welcome to another episode of WANZOLOGY. I'm your host, The Wanz, and I am, uh, coming to you live from the upper left-hand corner of the United States of America. So what's up with you? How you doing? Everybody in your world doing all right? I hope so. I hope that you are doing all right. Making it this far, I'm so proud of you. Yeah, this week I'm gonna reflect on something that happened last week because I've been thinking about it a lot. Last week I was out with a friend. I hadn't seen this person in a long time and I wanted to take them to dinner, so I did. And while we were at dinner it was great catching up because I was kinda worried about this person because I heard that they were in a car accident. We laughed and joked and reminisced. I got to find out a lot about how they were feeling and the big things and little things that are going on in their world,it was awesome!! Now time to take this person home and I go find the car, and as I'm turning the corner to where the car is parked, I see... Well, actually, at first I heard. I heard someone screaming, and I wasn't sure what they were saying, and as I got closer, I saw that they were standing over another person who was on the ground. And the person standing over the person was giving chest compressions and screaming, "Does anyone have any Narcan? Anyone? Help! Help!! Call 9-1-1!!!! Does anyone have any Narcan!?" As they're giving compressions to this person on the ground. I kind of picked up the pace, started running a little bit because I knew I had Narcan in the glove compartment of my car. So I ran to my car and got it, gave it to another person who ran it back up to the person giving compressions and as I was walking towards them, I started calling nine one one and started giving them the information and what was going on, and not even a minute and a half later, you could hear a siren coming in the distance. The person giving compressions was still doing it, still doing it. I was on the phone with the dispatcher saying what was going on, trying to clear up the confusion. No, I was not giving the person compressions, there was another person, and I couldn't really tell who anybody was because these were strangers, I was just coming back to my car. And the EMTs showed up. By the time the EMTs showed up, got their stuff out of their wagon, fire department showed up. The person who was on the ground, who had been a very, very dirty gray color, had started to regain some color. The EMTs sat down and started asking the person giving compressions what happened, basically. They took the pulse and the pulse-ox and measured this, that, and the other thing. They're talking to this person who was pretty much dead on the ground. That person started to sit up, and I was still on the phone with the dispatcher and finally said goodbye to that person. I stood about twenty feet away, just stunned, as the EMTs were taking blood pressure and checking pulse and asking questions of people around, and the cops showed up, and who made the 9-1-1 call? “That was me!”, and raised my hand, and I talked to the cops for a minute. And the person who had been unconscious, namely dead, then stood up and was looking around disoriented, asked to sit down, and they sat this woman down, and she was kind of a mess, but this was a vast improvement over the person that I had seen who was all gray, laying lifeless on the ground, eyeballs just not even focused, with a person pushing a lot on her chest. Everybody was talking to everybody else except the patient, and I walked over, kinda knelt down in front of that person. I asked, "Are you okay?" And she said, "Yeah." And I s-- introduced myself, and I said, "You know, you don't have to live like this. You never have to go through this ever again. I've been in sobriety for twenty-seven years, and I'm here to tell you, you have a choice. You don't have to do what you've done.” That person looked me in the eye, and when they looked me in the eye, I said, "Remember, your best choices got you where you are right now. I hope that everything goes okay." And then I got up and backed off a little bit. When the ambulance got there, they got up and walked to the ambulance, and I had to kinda wait 'cause the fire truck had come and parked right next to my car and pinned me to the curb so I couldn't leave. I started taking it all in. I came around the corner walking down the street, and then all this stuff unfolded, and it hit me. I was in the right place at the right time for this person, this one person. And the question that I wanted to ask is, how many times do you feel like you're in the right place at the right time with things? You probably haven't gone through something as dramatic as being available to possibly save someone's life, but there are things that have happened in your world where you were like, "Huh, I didn't see that coming. Glad I was ready!" That's what I kept telling myself. I'm glad I was ready. And then I remembered, you know, most of my life I've heard you should always be ready, that way you don't have to GET ready! I tried to apply that to other things that have happened in my life. There are a lot of things in my life that I have been ready for when they happened. This wasn't the first time, and I don't think that you have never experienced such a feeling. Maybe something not on the grand scale of saving a life or coming across someone who's OD'd or in a car accident or a lost child or something like that. but I bet in your life that you've had a situation where you got faced with a decision, and when you made the decision, you found it had such a positive outcome, you were amazed that it happened to you. Have you ever won lotto? Even if you've won like 10 to 20 bucks. A pull tab maybe? How about had a winning raffle ticket? How about just passed through an intersection and then seconds after you leave the intersection, there's a multi-car pileup right where you just were? You have any of those things ever happen to you? Or maybe it's something small like you are just hanging out wherever you're hanging out, maybe it's at a fair or some big public event, and you notice that there's a kid looking around that can't seem to find their parent. You start looking around and the kid starts crying and you come and console the kid while you're looking around, then you find an adult who seems to be looking for a kid and you wave them over and lo and behold, you were in the right place at the right time to reunite that child with their parent. Or maybe you're standing on a street corner and somebody is not paying attention as they're looking at their phone. They're about to walk out in the street, and you tap them on the shoulder and go, "Hold up. Hold up." And a bus goes by inches from the edge of the curb. You ever have something like that happen? You never know what's gonna happen in life, do you? Some people will say, "Oh, sure, I, I know what's gonna happen next." No, you don't. No one, and I do mean no one, can predict the future. Most of us go from one aspect of our life to another aspect of our life during a day, never really thinking about what could happen. We're already reacting to what HAS happened. At work, it's like, oh, you were working on this project, and then you got distracted, and then you had to get up and go to the bathroom, you come back from the bathroom, but you got a cup of coffee on the way back, and when you get back, it's like, "Where was I? Oh, yeah.", and then you pick up where you left off, sipping the coffee, and somebody comes by and said, "Did you watch the game last night?", and you talk a little bit about the game, and then you go back to your project, and that person leaves, and then all of a sudden it's time for lunch or maybe another trip to the bathroom. Then by the time you get home that day from your work, you go, "God, it was an okay day, but I didn't seem to get very much done.", but to you, you were just busy all day. You ever figure that out? Why is that happening? Why does every day have slight variations in it? Seems like it's the same thing every day, day in, day out, but when you really, really put a fine-tooth comb to it, it's not. And you are surprised by how many things that you dealt with, people, places, things, situations that you were confronted by and got past. One way or another, you were onto the next 'cause they were done, whatever that person, place, thing, or situation was. You never know what's gonna happen. And as I discovered, BEING ready means you don't have to take the time to GET ready!! Most people carry their phone on them. I implore you to look around wherever you are and try to find a place that you can get some Narcan and put it in your glove compartment, 'cause you don't know. You don't know who, you don't know where, and you definitely don't know when you might need it. That's what I found out. I figured out that there are lots of little teeny-weeny situations in my life where I'm already ready for it. I'm already ready to go outside to go to the store and buy groceries. I'm already ready to go to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. I'm already ready to go meet a friend for pie and ice cream on an evening. I'm already ready for all these things, and then once I get into the car, there's a whole slew of other things I've gotta be ready for, and they're all in the form of weather conditions, other drivers, when the light turns, and all these things. You never know what's going to happen So be ready! BE ready because then you won't have to GET ready. Usually, when people have to get ready, they panic and become sort of useless. I don't want that to happen to you, I want you to be useful. I want you to, like me, subscribe to the philosophy of I am my brother's keeper. I try to take care of people regardless of whether I know them or not. I try to do the best thing for them that I can, not because I'm gonna get anything out of it, but because I can. My mom used to say, "If you could do something nice for someone, why wouldn't you?" And I have no answer. So I keep trying, keep trying to pay attention. Am I useful here? Can I open a door for somebody here? Can I let somebody have the right of way at an intersection? Can I just slow down and move over so somebody can pass me on the freeway? Yeah, I do all those things! I don't do them because I'm a nice person. Most of those things I do because if I don't do them for somebody else, who the hell's gonna do it for me? The universe is always listening and watching. Good things tend to happen to good people. But what happens when bad things happen to good people? Then what? People have said it all my life, "Oh, I really hate it when bad things happen to good people." I figured that bad things happen to good people because whatever power the universe is based on is watching what happens to all those other people around them. I was raised in the church, I believe that there's a higher being and all that creativity stuff. Bad things happen to good people so that the people around them are tested. Like your friend who's diagnosed with breast cancer or your other friend who was in a car accident and lost an arm. You're always there for those people who you know need you, and you do it not because you have to, but because you choose to, and therein lies the lesson. You never know what's gonna happen. But in your mind, I bet like me, some of you prepare with their imagination, thinking what could happen next. What would I do? Aren't you one of those people who goes into a room and as soon as they go into a room they've never been in before, the first thing they look for after the restrooms is the exit sign? How about when you're driving on the road and you've got a car in front of you and a car on both sides of you, do you look behind you to see if you're boxed in, and if you are, how are you gonna get out of it? Because you're imagining one of those cars is gonna mess up, and you don't wanna be caught in that vortex! Or what about when you're hanging out and the bar is closing down, it's last call, and you see the man and the woman who are starting to elevate their conversation 'cause they're arguing with each other. Whether you know them or not, do you just ignore them, or are you keeping an eye on them in case... In case what? Well, you don't know. Nobody does. But you do it anyway. This is what I mean by being ready, and that way you don't have to get ready. You never know what's going to happen. None of us do. And I'll leave you with this. Would life be any less enjoyable if you always knew what was going to happen? If there was nothing that was a surprise, would you still consider it a good thing even though you knew it was gonna happen? Would you look forward to it so much that it wouldn't have any luster, it wouldn't have any joy? You never know what's going to happen. None of us do. Don't pretend. BE ready, and that way you don't have to get ready! “Be ready for what, Wanz?” Be ready for anything. And imagination is a brilliant thing. All the things that don't happen that you imagine could happen, they're all just practice. You know how to get one place to another, and if there's an accident or if there's a blockage due to construction, you know how to get there by using another way. That's being ready. Something is gonna happen. It always does. To me, the coolest thing is not knowing what it is that's going to happen. Then, you get to react to it and evaluate how that reaction went. Was it good? I hope so. I hope good things come your way. I hope that good decisions are made and you enjoy the outcome. None of us know what's gonna happen. All I know is that it's better to be ready than to get ready!! Thanks for listening, y'all. Another episode in the books. I'll be back with you next week, and by all means, find a place that you can get some Narcan, one is all you need, and keep it in your glove compartment, keep it in your purse, keep it on your person, 'cause you never know when you might be able to assist in the saving of someone else. Righty-O!! Take care of yourself so that you're available to help take care of somebody else. Talk to you later!!