미국에서 일어난 월터 카의 아름다운 이야기 VIDEO: What Walter Carr, the young man who walked 20 miles to work, taught me this week
What Walter Carr, the young man who walked 20 miles to work, taught me this week
By Mike Kerrigan | Fox News
Kris Kristofferson has been writing great songs for decades. One of my favorites, “Wild American”, has a line in it that I’ve been thinking about lately. It’s this: “heroes happen when you need ‘em.” For these days I wonder, do they?
Heroism is, of course, found the world over, wherever our military engages to defend freedom. It’s visible throughout our homeland, when firemen and policemen put their own safety second to ours. But those are life’s big moments. Where is heroism in the quiet little moments that make up everyday life?
미국에서 일어난 월터 카의 아름다운 이야기
첫 출근 망치지 않으려 '30km' 걸어온 신입 직원
그리고 그 신입직원의 성실함에 자동차 쏜 사장님
지난 17일(현지 시간) 미국 ABC 뉴스 등 외신은 성실한 직원과 그런 직원에게 잊지 못할 선물을 준 사장님의 이야기를 전했다.
미국 앨라배마주에 사는 남성 월터 카(Walter Carr)는 최근 이삿짐 운반 업체에 처음으로 일자리를 얻었다. 고대하던 첫 직장이었다.
첫 출근일은 지난 15일, 이사 예정인 고객의 집으로 예정돼 있었다. 그러나 운명의 장난일까.
예상치 못하게 첫 출근부터 나가지 못할 위기에 처했다. 유일한 교통수단인 차가 고장 나 버렸기 때문이다.
첫 출근부터 모든 것을 망치고 싶지 않았던 월터는 두 다리에 의존해 출근하기로 마음먹었다. 총 32km에 달하는 거리였다.
그렇게 월터는 자정부터 걷고, 또 걸었다. 얼마나 지났을까, 잠시 휴식을 하던 월터는 근처를 지나던 경찰들과 마주쳤다.
월터의 사정을 들은 경찰은 흔쾌히 그를 목적지까지 바래다줬다. 덕분에 월터는 고객의 집에 일찍 도착할 수 있었다.
월터가 집에 일찍 도착하자 이삿짐 포장을 요청한 고객 제니(Jenny)는 무척 놀라고 말았다. 그가 무려 1시간 30분이나 일찍 도착했기 때문이다.
월터를 바래다 준 경찰들이 월터의 긴 여정에 관해 설명하자 놀란 마음은 이내 고마운 마음으로 바뀌었다.
제니가 조금이라도 쉬는 게 어떻겠냐고 권하자 월터는 이내 그것도 마다하고 짐을 싸기 시작했다.
겸손하고 성실한 월터의 모습에 깊은 감명을 받은 제니는 페이스북에 월터의 이야기를 게재했다.
월터의 이야기는 퍼지고 퍼져 월터의 사장인 루크(Luke)에게까지 닿았다.
루크는 "월터 같은 직원이 있어 정말 자랑스럽다"며 "월터가 보여준 모습은 우리 회사가 추구하는 모든 것"이라고 설명했다.
루크는 월터의 원활한 출근길을 위해 새 차를 선물했다.
예상치 못한 선물을 받은 월터는 "정말 감사하다"며 "나는 그저 첫 출근을 망치고 싶지 않았을 뿐"이라며 겸손한 모습을 보였다. [인사이트] 황비 기자
* 맨 하단 사진 설명:
첫 출근을 망치지 않기 위해 밤새 걸은 직원을 위해 '차'를 선물한 통 큰 사장님의 이야기가 훈훈함을 전하고 있다.
황기철 콘페이퍼 에디터 큐레이터
Ki Chul Hwang, conpaper editor, curator
This is what I’ve been wondering - do heroes really happen when we need them - because our country could use a few right now. As anyone can see, our national mood is foul and our discourse is strident. We seem to have less time for a neighbor – especially one of a different political persuasion - and have forgotten how to disagree without being disagreeable.
There is a growing distance between us as countrymen.
Enter Walter Carr, the Birmingham, Alabama college student who made news last week. Carr is the young man who walked twenty miles through the night when his car broke down, rather than miss his first day of work.
We’ve all heard the hardscrabble tale from a relative who trudged miles through the snow, shoeless and somehow uphill both ways, to get to and from school. Someday when Carr tells his story to his grandchildren, he’ll actually be telling the truth.
It gets better. Carr wasn’t showing up at some cushy internship. It was his first day on the job at a moving company. This is work that you shower after, not before. It certainly is not the kind of labor you undertake on a bad night’s sleep, let alone no sleep at all after marching a near-marathon. Yet that’s exactly what Carr did.
With the help of concerned police officers who picked up Carr on his pre-dawn trek, fed him breakfast and took him to his destination, the young man actually beat his crew to the jobsite. Once the family to be moved learned what this spectacular young man had done on their behalf, they offered him their guest room, so he could rest until the remaining crew arrived. Carr refused the gesture, and instead started working.
The young man wants to be a United States Marine. How fitting, for already he seems to run to the sound of guns. I don’t know about you, but I sleep better knowing a man of this toughness and character might soon be keeping watch over my family and me.
Carr’s grit is obvious enough, but legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden said the true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching. Surely a young man who sets out alone to walk 20 miles through the night, just to be at work on time is, quite literally, choosing the hard path when nobody is watching.
But here’s the beautiful part. I bet this young man has no idea just how many lives he’s touched. Sure, Carr saw the moving company’s CEO give him a car – that is to say, his boss’s very own vehicle - in a gesture that was pure class. He saw how he warmed the heart of the family that he moved. But I bet Carr has no idea how many other Americans were affected by his story.
Here I am, a middle aged guy who probably would have checked into a Hampton Inn before mile one, marveling at this young man’s fine example. Carr has taught me something rather useful in our angry age.
St. Thomas More said that times are never so bad but that a good man can live in them. I know this is true, but knowing is a head-thing. Doing something about it is a heart-thing. If the book were written on me today, it might say something like “you knew a fair amount, but what did you do with it?”
Carr’s decision was all heart, all action. He saw the problem – the space between where he was and where he needed to be – and he closed the distance.
So what can we Americans do, what can I do? Simple – close the distance. Make the first step toward common ground with someone where it doesn’t presently exist. If you want to see more goodness around you, create more goodness around you. It will not be less beautiful to behold because you did it. It will be more so.
It doesn’t have to be a big thing. If like me you’ll be new at this, perhaps starting small is a good idea. Say, a discussion over coffee with someone who doesn’t think “Rudy” is the greatest movie ever made, or disagrees that there is spiritual depth in the lyrics of 38 Special songs. I know what you’re thinking: Where will I find such a person?
Overcoming enmity is possible. Scripture tells us “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Perhaps this is such a moment.
Mr. Carr, by closing the distance you gave a weary country inspiration when we needed it most. You showed the promise of an undaunted human spirit that lives in all of us.
I hope you stay on the narrow path you’ve chosen. You seem like the type who will. But come what may, know that you didn’t just move a family last week. You moved a country.
Kris Kristofferson was right. Heroes really do happen when you need them.
Well done, Walter Carr.
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