{"id":15919,"date":"2011-09-06T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T19:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/313.20"},"modified":"2011-09-06T12:00:14","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T19:00:14","slug":"where-theres-water-theres-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/2011\/09\/06\/where-theres-water-theres-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Where There's Water, There's Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I flopped bonelessly across the bed and stared, unfocusing, at the ceiling.\u00a0 I slowly closed my eyes against the harsh light of my thoughts.
\nI felt my wife\u2019s weight on the bed as she sat down next to where I was laying.\u00a0 Her voice floated toward me:
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d
\n\u201cOh\u2026I\u2019ve failed.\u201d I grumbled in what I hoped was a matter-of-fact tone.
\n\u201cWhat do you mean?\u00a0 Failed at what?\u201d
\nOur daughter was visiting a friend\u2019s house that evening, and it was arranged that I would pick her up.\u00a0 As I turned onto one of the less savory streets of our city, my daughter pointed out a man sleeping on a bench at the bus stop.\u00a0 \u201cHow sad\u2026\u201d She commented.
\n\u201cAnd I just drove on.\u201d\u00a0 I groaned.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t stop or anything.\u00a0 My daughter watched me as I passed by someone who was apparently in need.\u201d
\nI felt my wife\u2019s hand brush across the top of my head.
\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ve got a thousand excuses.\u00a0 All cop-outs.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have anything to give to him. I couldn\u2019t get to where he was without crossing several lanes of traffic, then parking at a grocery store, then walking over to the bus stop while leaving our kid in the car.\u00a0 In that<\/em> neighborhood.\u201d
\nMy wife\u2019s hand stopped. \u201cWhat else?\u201d
\nShe had accurately sensed that those were all just excuses I created after the fact.<\/em> After I had failed to stop and give help, I came up with all sorts of ideas as to why I didn\u2019t.
\nI sighed.\u00a0 \u201cI didn\u2019t think of it until I was about three blocks down the road.\u00a0 I wasn’t thinking much about helping others, I was just “being Dad,” concentrating on getting my kid home.\u00a0I suppose I could have turned back, but then all those excuses came to mind and I just kept going.\u201d
\nShe resumed her hair-stroking.\u00a0 \u201cYour reasons don\u2019t sound too much like cop-outs to me, but I think you may be feeling guilty because, for a moment, you\u2019ve forgotten who you are.\u201d
\nWe sat in silence for a few heavy moments, then her voice reached my ears again.
\n\u201cWhy don\u2019t you try this\u2026\u201d
\nNow, in the front seat of my car and within easy reach lies a small duffel bag.\u00a0 It is always stocked with water bottles, each bearing the Rook symbol.\u00a0 They not only serve as a constant reminder of who I am as well as my mission, they provide ready access to something everyone who lives in my neck of the desert needs.\u00a0 It\u2019s an easy, convenient way to help others when you\u2019re busily going about the other part of your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Patrol blog by Rook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17,24],"tags":[1162,1983,2262],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rlsh.net\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}