I witnessed the wildest thing over the weekend. Ok, so it wasn’t exactly wild, but the reaction certainly was. It was one of those moments where you watch life unravel so slowly, it seems — like you see what’s happening, can tell what will happen next, you know it isn’t going to be good, and yet, you can do nothing to stop it.
En route to my oldest son’s baseball game, my other 2 sons and I were killing a little time prior to the game’s start. We had stopped at the local grocer just off the main highway in rush hour traffic. It was a four lane highway with no median but a shared, center left turn lane.
A black sedan was heading north in the actual turn lane, while a smaller 4 door Ford was coming swiftly from the opposite direction, seemingly also looking to turn, but seemingly also indecisive as she was not yet in the shared turn lane. In other words, both the black sedan and 4 door Ford were wanting to be in the same place at the same time. With full traffic at a 6 p.m. pace, there was minimal room to maneuver and even less time to make the decision.
The driver of the Ford then made the fateful choice to turn in front of the sedan. Watching from the nearby grocery lot, it was painstakingly clear such was not a wise decision.
The crash was both loud and immediate. The front of the Ford was ripped off in an instant, as auto fluids quickly flooded the freeway. There seemed little question of whether or not the car was totaled.
In that eerie silence after a car crash — when the shock of the unexpected meets the reality of needing to deal with it — the driver’s door opened on the now totaled Ford. Out jumped a young, shoeless girl — a girl no more than 17/18 years old. She instantly filled the space of the silence.
The young girl sprang out the door, began jumping up and down, waving her arms, screaming. She was screaming so loud it was the only sound to be heard. My heart stopped; for a moment I wondered if someone else had accompanied her — and perhaps that person was injured — but such was not the case. She was alone.
The girl continued jumping, continued screaming, and then she proceeded to start running up and down the street… first through that not-to-be-shared center lane… then actually running across the rush hour lanes… then up and down the adjacent sidewalks. The screams and hysterics continued until the sights and sounds of rush hour traffic resumed and drowned out the air space. The young teen was hysterical, mad, and possibly also in shock.
Let me first say that even as an eyewitness, there is so much I don’t know. I don’t know if she had insurance or if she was down to her last dollar or if she deceptively took her parents’ vehicle without their knowledge. Even though I saw the action unfold, I do not know the entire substance of her screams.
I thus learned 2 things from the encounter… First, even an eyewitness is incapable of making all conclusions. Second, how often (and God bless the young girl…) but how often do we react hysterically to the bad things that happen in our lives, forgetting that so many others have it far worse? I wonder if sometimes we are so focused on our own experience that we react in an extreme way, forgetting it could be worse… forgetting there’s always much to be thankful for.
There’s one more thing I learned this day… Tough circumstances — scenarios we can’t control — can happen in an instant; hence, we shouldn’t take any day for granted. If we truly knew that, such perspective would undoubtedly, dramatically affect our reaction.
Respectfully,
AR