The year 2026 has not started well.

An act of war and the kidnapping of the Venezuelan President.

Seizure of tankers on the open ocean.

More death and destruction in Ukraine.

Threats to take over Greenland.

Warnings of another war with Iran.

And the shooting of a young mother in Minneapolis, which will lead to further partisan strife and likely more violence.

Even with all that, life still hands out  simple reminders of the qualities that should give us a bit of hope for humanity.

Earlier this week, it was my day to take our dog, Henry, to doggy daycare.

The daycare is part of the owner’s house – a garage and a fenced outdoor play area behind her house.

The challenge is that her house is down a narrow single-land road whose view is obstructed by trees as it drops down a small hill to where her home is.

There are a limited number of spots for parking while doing drop offs or pickups, and if cars are filling those, anyone coming down has to back up the hill and around a bit of a curve to get out of the way. That’s led to problems with knocked down street address posts and other small structures along the road.

So, as I was bringing Henry down the road, I saw there was already one car in front of me heading to the daycare.

Without knowing who else was there, I decided to pull over into a gravel area to wait and see who might be coming back out.

That would have been a good move – if – I hadn’t forgotten about the four-man rock that was placed at the front of the gravel area.

I turned into the gravel and felt and heard scraping and stopped moving.  I had  high-pointed the front axle.

That was as far as I was going as I knew I was stuck and was going to need a tow truck to lift me off.

Any illusions I had that I was in control of anything went out the window.

I confirmed it when I looked to my left and was reminded of the paved entrance area to a short road for a property that wasn’t developed. I could have pulled over there – I’ve seen it every trip – but nope. Another reminder of not being smart.

As I sat, about to call AAA, the owner of the daycare came by after an errand (she has assistants working for her).

She was solicitous and asked if I needed tea or a blanket – temperature was in the 40s, but no rain (thankfully). I said I was fine and she went to her home. She checked me on me later, which was thoughtful as she was engaged with the dogs they were caring for that day – she was trained in England and does a lot of one on one behavioral work with them.

I got out of the car and inspected the underside of the car. Fortunately, I saw no motor or transmission oil on the rock. That was a good thing.

Then, one of the other cars at daycare came out. “Millie” was driving.

One of the things about dog owners around here –you’re known only by your dog’s name. So, I’m Henry or Gracie (Oliver stays home except for neighborhood walks).

In this case, Millie – a Bassett Hound, was owned by Paula (we reintroduced ourselves just to remind ourselves who we were).

Paula said she felt bad about me being stranded, and in spite of my saying I would be fine, she spent the next two hours as we chatted about everything on various subjects.

I got a measure of her empathy when she told she had recently seen an older man fall near a rotary on the nearby street and people drove past without helping  until she stopped her car, blocked traffic, and got out and helped him to his feet.

I tried to reach AAA through both their phone and app on my iPhone  No luck either way.

Another neighbor walked over and said he had trouble with getting AAA there and suggested calling the towing service and then trying to get reimbursed.

Good plan.

I called and reached the towing service immediately.

The only problem was that it took another 2.5 hours for the truck to show up – only about seven minutes after Paula said she couldn’t stay any longer.

Marcus from the towing company got out, looked at my car, and said he’d seen this before – he was being nice to let me know I wasn’t the first.

He used straps, and then placed a beam over them to minimize damage to my front bumper (there was none) and he lifted the car and pushed it back.

We looked at the stone again and verified there was no oil – he also looked under the car and said the transmission pan was scratched but undamaged.

Except for my bruised ego, my car and I came out fine (except for the $340 bill – submitted to AAA for reimbursement).

As I drove home, I thought about how kind everyone had been – even the tow-truck driver.

It would have been easy to let it go at that as the experience left me filled with hope.

But then it was if I had high-pointed myself.

I realized it wasn’t about being kind to those with whom we are familiar or interact.

The lesson was Paula’s anecdote about the older man.

Those people driving by him who didn’t stop were probably all decent people.

They were just too distracted; too much in a hurry; or just reluctant to get involved.

He was a stranger, after all. They wouldn’t act the same toward someone they knew.

Until we can care about strangers – Gaza, Ukraine, Venezuela, Iran, and Minneapolis will keep happening.

And maybe that should be everyone’s resolution for 2026 – be kind to people no matter who they are or what they believe.