Meet George!
After Thanksgiving passed I started putting up decorations for Christmas including our 6 foot tall snowman that Meg had named George last year when we bought him. It was a Friday and by the time it got dark I had a few decorations up but I had started late so wasn't finished. Nevertheless I plugged them in and let them light up the night. This picture is from last year but it is pretty true to where George was located again. He was at the end of the rocks just 10 feet or so from my front porch. The plan was to collect snowmen slowly and put them on the right side of the house.
It was a warm night so I had the door that leads to the second floor porch open because Tennessee weather is ever changing and I wanted to enjoy the unseasonable temperature as much as possible. At around 2am I woke to a loud banging noise like something being thrown into the bed of a truck. I jumped up and looked out the door before putting on my glasses. Parked in front of my neighbor's house was a pickup truck and I couldn't see what was in it but the bed looked very full. I moved away from the door and grabbed my phone to call the police as I went downstairs to my garage door. While on the phone with the dispatcher I gave my info and what I could about the truck including that the bed looked full and I heard banging like things being thrown in it. I also said I would be home and willing to speak with an officer. Looking out my garage door I could see the truck was gone so I went outside. I walked toward the street in front of my house and then turned back to look at my house and that was when I realized that George was gone. What I had seen in the back of the truck was most likely our tinseled snowman. I immediately posted on the neighborhood Facebook page and NextDoor.
Then I sat on my front steps waiting for an officer to come. I would learn the next day that at least two other neighbors had decorations stolen. I waited for almost an hour before finally going back to bed. A little while later a sheriff drove around the neighborhood but did not call me or stop by the house. Saturday morning I called our non-emergency number and reported the actual theft of the snowman. Sadly he was never found.
But for about a week (well and even now but in a different way) the theft of George became a focus. At the time I drove up and down highway 24 after people said they saw the snowman on the side of the highway. I was hoping he had blown out of the truck and maybe I would find him tucked into the tree line or something. I posted on a few neighborhood Facebook pages and responded to people on NextDoor. I was very much obsessed and for good reason. First George was expensive. He was a solid 8 hours of work to earn the money to buy a 6 foot tall tinsel snowman. I had to work an entire day to buy what someone stole in under five minutes. Second whoever stole him came right up to my house to grab him. They were within 10 feet of my house and 20 feet of my door. And three Meg, who was still upstairs overheard them yell/laughing "they are going to have a Merry Christmas" so they were callous. I talked to anybody who would listen about this theft. I was upset.
Was it worth getting so upset over... maybe not. It was, after all, just a decoration and neither I nor Meg were hurt. I started thinking myself down questioning why I was so upset. I imagined that people reading the posts and responses would think it is silly (#firstworldproblems). It was just a decoration. And that some reading it, maybe some reading this would think "I wish my biggest problem was a stolen Christmas decoration." But here is the thing I realized. It wasn't. But that didn't make it not important. And it wasn't my biggest problem, not even close, but it felt like the most unnecessary and it also felt like one I could solve. Because I couldn't solve my biggest problems. There was nothing I could do for those. I can do my best to mitigate my biggest problems and not let them control my life but I can't solve them. But this one I felt like I could and I should be able to solve it. I felt like I could do something about it. Like drive up and down the highway looking for George.
And then I thought of this meme which has become one of my favorite and a go to for understanding different mindsets and events.
I saw this on Facebook and unfortunately I don't remember where to properly credit it.
I think my reason for posting this and writing this is just to say "be kind" you don't know what someone else is going through. What may seem insignificant could mean the world to a different person.
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