Tuesday, October 30, 2007

the wake-up

i kid from time to time that "i'm so tired, i'm going to die". who doesn't? the idea of death is so far fetched and out of our mind for most of our lives until it's right there in our face saying "let's roll". last night i had a bit of a wake-up.

i was driving down rio lindo heading to the gym (for those of you not in Chico, it's a very busy street were businesses meet residential. the posted speed limit is 35, but most people go much faster). i was rocking out to Asia, minding my own business. from out of now where, a person (it happened so fast, i'm not even sure if it was a man or a woman) tried to merge in the lane i was driving in, but either didn't see me or didn't gauge my speed very well and nearly hit me. the only time i had was to slam on my breaks --- i couldn't even swerve because there was a car parked to the right of me.

i was in complete shock. the person drove into a parking lot and i pulled over on the street. i walked around my car and nothing was damaged. the woman behind me stopped and asked if i was ok... she was nice -- she went and found were the person who nearly hit me had moved and was hiding in a dark part of the parking lot.

i wasn't sure what to do: i was safe, my car was OK, and i didn't hit the parked car.... the woman thought i should confront the person, maybe i should have, but i've made peace with the situation and let it go.

after i got back into my car i started to think about how close it really was... if i wasn't paying attention or didn't react so quickly, i might have been hit. and the angle of the truck would have met my driver side window and i'm pretty sure i would have been seriously hurt.

but it makes you think: if today is my last day on this earth, what would i leave behind? what unanswered questions would i leave? do the people in my life know how much they mean to me? what will happen to bert and ernie? did i really live the life i wanted?

i hope so.

3 comments:

J. Varon said...

yeah, that definitely got me thinking! thanks for this.

I am so happy you are ok!!

Unknown said...

I thought John Long was the wake up call...

Amber D. (Evans) Marcu, Ph.D. said...

I'm so glad you are okay! Things like that really can shake you up. Good chance to reflect, though. I'm still really glad you're okay.