One summer, about 35 years ago I was driving a tractor on our farm, raking some straw in a field that had just been combined. I was all alone and getting so very hot and tired that I decided to stop the tractor so I could quickly grab the water jug, which was in the trees at the end of the field.

When I jumped off the tractor I failed to set the parking brake, and so when I went to get back on the tractor after grabbing my water jug, the tractor began to roll backwards. Immediately, I was pinned between the huge tire and the implement I was pulling.

Fortunately, I was stuck inside the well of the tire; otherwise, I probably would have been crushed and killed! Needless to say, I was still pinned in and could not move. The tractor was running at full throttle so it was quite loud, which prevented anyone from hearing me holler for help. And so there I was, stuck for several hours in this very strange predicament.

It was my dad who finally came to the rescue and pluck me from this very uncomfortable position. You know, Dad never did yell at me or say anything at all to make me feel bad. (He probably knew I already felt pretty stupid.)

One lesson I learned that day is this: Always make sure to set the brake on a hill! More importantly, though, I also learned that when someone close to me does something really dumb, I want to handle it quietly, just like my dad did. When people mess up, they usually feel bad enough and I sure don’t need to say anything to make them feel even worse than they already do.