WWJD? Help You Look For Your Lip Ring

Years ago when my sister still lived in Portland, my mom, dad and I went over to her place for dinner. We parked a couple blocks away in the Goose Hollow neighborhood. It was cold, dark and wet outside, a light drizzle coming down. As we were crossing the street, we saw a teenage boy crouched over, using his phone flashlight, looking for something on the dark pavement, its surface shiny from the rain. We asked him what he was looking for and he said “my lip ring.” Oh. Ok. He barely looked up at us, he was so serious in his intent. His long greasy hair was parted down the middle. His social skills were awkward, and I thought he might be high because that’s how mute and anxious I get if I’m stoned in public (which is never now, bc I get way too paranoid). We asked him what the ring looked like and sort of tried to look for it as we slowly finished crossing the street. We left him with a good luck. Hope you find it. 

I used the bathroom upstairs at my sister’s after we arrived. When I came back downstairs, my dad was gone. I asked my mom and sister where he went but they didn’t know, they were distracted finishing up the final touches to dinner. They just said he’d grabbed something and left. And I instantly knew where he was. Because I know my dad. And even though he’s not at all religious, when people need help, you can often find him doing what Jesus would do. 

I headed back to the scene, and sure enough there he was, crouched down alongside the kid in the middle of the road. He’d brought a big flashlight from my sister’s, and he looked freaking determined to find the lip ring. I thought it was the funniest/cutest/most endearing/WWJD situation. Because I knew my dad didn’t give a shit about lip rings. I knew he probably thought they were stupid. But he cared about this teenaged punk rocker-looking kid’s plight because he could tell it was super important to him to find that piece of jewelry. 

I joined them for a while in the search, scanning the pavement with my iPhone flashlight. Five to ten minutes later, my fingers were cold and my legs were getting tired from crouching. I knew my dad’s had to be worse. Heroic images of me finding the lip ring flashed through my mind. But our efforts turned up nothing. The kid barely spoke to us. We bid him another good luck and went back to my sister’s for dinner.

My dad has probably forgotten this night. But for me it’s one of my favorite snapshots of who he is, and the best of humanity in general. When it’s not about the outcome or the acknowledgment. Just a human seeing a fellow human searching in the dark and showing up with another flashlight.