Broken Eggs and Shattered Glass . . . With my sincere thanks to those late night pranksters!
On a recent Saturday evening at around midnight, my wife and I were just
about to turn out the light and go to sleep when we heard the sounds of a group
of people talking in the street, outside our home. Then out of the blue came two
loud thuds above our bedroom window, followed by the noise of laughter and
people running away down our street.
We both jumped out of bed, I turned on the external lights and rushed outside
unsure of what had caused the two thuds or what damage I could expect to see.
The silence of the night was broken by the distant sound of people laughing and
at that moment I was of a mind to chase after them, however, running bare-footed
on the road in the dark is not a very wise thing to do.
I could hear dripping noises on the driveway and the flood light above our
garage helped me to identify just what had happened. Our home had been the
victim of an egg bombing!
Being faced with the prospect of cleaning up this sticky mess in the early hours
of the morning was not a pleasing thought, on top of which I was less than
impressed that we had been singled out for this annoying prank. I decided that
it was too late to clean up the mess, as it would disturb our neighbours, so it
could wait to the morning.
Early next morning with a bucket of warm water and scrubbing brush in hand, and
with the extension ladder placed on the front wall, I was now ready to wash off
what was now two dry yellowish, egg grit impregnated, 1 metre long patches above
our front bedroom windows.
My task was made even more challenging by the two large canvas awnings which
protect our bedroom windows from the heat and glare of the afternoon sun. My
annoyance with the late night pranksters was again building to the level of the
night before.
After retracting each of the awnings, something we rarely do except when there
is are very high winds, I then climbed the ladder to clean up the first patch of
egg stain and then move the ladder to clean the second patch.
As I climbed the ladder for the second time, I noticed that the glass in a small
window just under the roof line was very badly cracked. On closer inspection the
crack ran around over half of the outer edge of the window pane. As the awning
protected the window, it was clear to me that the damage had not been caused by
the egg bombing. As I carefully placed my hand on the glass, I discovered that
the pane of glass was very loose and had the window been closed with any force,
it would have most likely shattered and the glass dropped to the drive way, some
seven metres below.
Just a few metres away, we have a basketball ring and on most days of the week
there are up to six young people who play in the immediate area, including both
my sons. My thoughts immediately turned to what could have happened if the
broken glass in the window had gone undetected for much longer and then suddenly
shattered. The likelihood of my two sons and their friends being seriously
injured was extremely high.
After quickly washing the remaining egg stain off the front wall and with the
help of Tom, my youngest son, I got to work with some heavy duty masking tape
and secured the cracked window as best I could. Within 24 hours the cracked
window had been replaced and all was back to normal, except for the small bits
of egg shell I kept finding on the front drive way and stuck to our garage
doors.
Over the next few days, I realized that had our home not been bombarded by those
eggs late on that Saturday night, I may not have discovered the broken window
pane before it shattered and came down all over our drive way.
Even though it had been an annoyance at time, the broken eggs and the stains
were cleaned up very quickly, however, the pain that could have been caused by
the shattering of glass would never gone away and would have haunted my wife and
myself, forever and a day.
The cold shudder that ran down my spine when I first discovered the cracked
window and the thought about the consequences of someone being seriously injured
or even killed, made me realize just how very lucky we had been.
Frequently in life, the small things that happen to us may have a negative
impact and cause some form of pain, sadness, discomfort or personal aggravation.
It is often said that we should not 'sweat the small stuff' and always look for
the positive outcome or the silver lining in those dark clouds of the current
circumstance, even though at the time that is not always an easy thing to do.
My personal experience with the egg bombing on that Saturday evening reminded me
that in most cases there is always a flip side to everything that happens to us
and that often the flip side can provide a positive outcome or an even greater
benefit, if not now, then at some time in the future.
From now on whenever I see or break an egg, I will think of the egg bombing
incident and say a thank you to those late night pranksters. Equally, I will
always be reminded of Jean-Paul Sartre's quote:
'What is important is not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens
to us'
Written by Keith Ready - July 2005
Keith Ready lives and in Sydney, Australia and is affectionately known as Mr
Inspiration. He is publisher of InspirEmail which provides inspirational
messages to refresh the spirit and boost the emotional bank account. You can
visit his website at
www.agiftofinspiration.com.au and he can be contacted via e-mail at
info@agiftofinspiration.com.au