The Truck Who Cried Ride-Along

The other night, I was asked to do a ride-along for the Bishop's Storehouse. Basically, someone drives a truck full of groceries from Point A to Point B, and I'm asked to tag along because that's church policy. Anyhow, this meant that I needed to get to the Bishop's Storehouse by 6:00 - 6:15 am this morning. Ultimately, I got there by 6:10, but by the time I got there, the truck had already left.

This wasn't the first time this has happened. I'm not sure if I blogged about it (I know I thought about blogging about it), but a while back, I was terribly late for a ride-along, arriving at 6:30 or some other dismally late time of day, and found that the truck had left without me - and with good reason. Those folks in Placerville, or wherever else the truck was headed that day, were expecting their groceries, and with no way of contacting me, the driver went on and delivered the groceries himself. I assume the same thing happened this morning.

The thing is that this time, I wasn't late. I arrived at the Storehouse within the time period by which I was expected to arrive. Granted, I wasn't there as early as I could have been expected to be there, and perhaps at 6:05 or promptly at 6:10, the driver decided that I, once again, had failed to show up, and that he had better deliver the groceries himself. My earlier failure to arrive on time may have caused the driver to believe that I had once again accidentally slept in.

Or perhaps the shoe was on the other foot this time. I arrived at 6:10 or 6:11, but I didn't stay long. When I saw that the truck wasn't there, I assumed it left before I arrived, as it had before, not considering that it might have been the truck driver who was late this time. Actually, the driver might not have even been late. He could have arrived at 6:13-6:15, and I wouldn't have known.

Because I had been late before, the driver may have assumed that I was late again and left without me, and because the driver had left without me before, I assumed that he had done so again, so I figured that there was no point in sticking around. One way or another, we both missed each other, and we each probably should have waited at the Storehouse a little longer.

They say that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. While that doesn't account for the possibility of someone learning from their mistakes, there is a decent amount of truth to it. What we do now will affect what others will expect us to do later. If we miss an appointment, it's only fair for others to expect that there's a high chance that we'll miss another appointment later. I don't blame the driver if he left without me, and I don't truly blame myself for guessing that he did. We were both at fault today, and we each only have our past and present selves to blame.