For anyone who knows me, I avoid yard work. So in the first week of December, I rolled out my lawn mower to catch up on the year-end lawn mowing and leaf raking. I checked the gas in the mower and it looked a little low. I proceeded to fill it up, put on the cap, and roll it to my backyard. I primed the gas pump, pulled the cord, and it started for about 1 second and then shut off. I thought to myself, “Hmm… that’s weird. It’s never done that before.” I primed it again, pulled the cord again, and it did the exact same thing. “What the heck! I bought this mower brand new two seasons ago!” I primed the pump, pulled the cord a third time and it did the SAME THING! At this point I was getting pretty mad. It was starting to get dark and I still had lots of leaf raking to do.
My new next door neighbor pulled into his driveway and saw that I was fooling around with my mower. I had not yet had a chance to meet him and, quite frankly, I really did want to be bothered while I was trying to figure out the problem with my mower. When my neighbor realized I was having problems, he said in an Indian accent, “Is there any gas in your mower?” I began to think to myself, “Is there any GAS in my mower? HA! Of course there is! I just filled it up… all the way to the top!” So I looked over to him and said, “Yep, I just filled it up. I don’t know what the problem is.”
So he put down whatever was in his hands, walks over, and messes around with my mower. Keep in mind, I didn’t ask for any help, nor did he ask if he could mess around with my mower. So initially I got a little offended. “Who is this guy? Messing around with MY mower… He’s not going to fix it.” He pops off my gas cap, sets the cap down next to the mower, and then proceeds to start up my mower. Since I’m really anal about safety I start to freak out in my head, “What the heck is he doing!!!??? He’s going to get gas everywhere and he might start a fire!” He pulls on the cord and the mower starts up and STAYS STARTED. Meanwhile, gas is vibrating out the tank and all over the top of the mower (and I start freaking in my head and about how it might blow up). He shuts off the mower and said to me in his Indian accent, “Brother, you have too much gas in your tank.”
He starts up the mower again with the cap off, puts the cap on while it’s running, and gestured that it was ready for me to use. I shook his hand and proceeded to mow my lawn thinking about what just happened and how completely rude I was in my thoughts toward my new neighbor. I also realized he called me “Brother”. What an interesting way to greet a stranger! Right from the start, he established a kind relationship simply in his choice of words. I began thinking about his dark brown skin color and his accent and wondering which country he was most likely from.
As I was thinking about him, I noticed he got out his leaf blower to take care of the leaves that were in his front yard. I realized that he might not know that we need to put our leaves in yard waste bags and the edge of the road. I decided I had better give him a few, so I stop the mower, walk into my garage, and come out with 3 bags. As I was walking toward him, he held out his hand to receive the bags even before I offered them to him! As I handed the bags to him, I said, “I figured you might need a few of these.” He said to me, “Thank you, Brother.”
I walk back to my mower thinking about what just happened. I noticed he had called me “Brother” again. That’s a nice way to greet someone.
