Thinking Out Loud, Volume CCCXXXVIII

It was a dreary evening in northern Louisiana. Menacing clouds were hanging low with a fine mist in the air; it was unseasonably warm for November, and I could see lightning in the distance toward the northeast. After spending practically an entire day working in the Shreveport area, I was tired and glad to be on the interstate heading home, but it turned out to be a trip I won't soon forget. Within minutes that distant lightning became not so distant, and almost as quickly it was all around me, the rain was coming down in sheets, and it felt as if the wind would either blow me off the road or blow a tree down in front of me....or both. I turned on my flashers and slowed my car down to about twenty miles per hour. Even the big tractor-trailer rigs were traveling about the same speed as me. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a late model Chevy pickup truck passed me, and it had to be going at least eighty miles per hour. All I could think was, "What an idiot! I'll probably be seeing him wrapped around a tree in a few minutes." I was wrong about the tree, but in no more than five minutes, I saw him in the median, buried up to his axles in mud. All I could say was, "That turned out good. He's better off there than on the road." No, I didn't stop to help. Maybe I should have. At the moment, I was just happy to see him where he was. Later on, as I would tell that story to my friends, some would suggest that maybe he had a good reason for driving so fast, like an emergency at home, etc. Really? Does that excuse him for putting his life and the lives of everyone else on the highway, including mine, in danger? Doesn't arriving a few minutes later beat not arriving at all? The truth is, none of us will ever know what his motivation was that evening. What I do know is he wasn't using wisdom. I'm not really sure why the events of that November evening have stuck so vividly in my memory. Maybe it's because I found out later that night that several tornadoes had touched down in the area, with the town of Olla almost being wiped off the map. I must say, however, that it has served as a reminder for me to use this little brain I have at all times. In other words, to think before I act...or speak, and to ask myself what will be the consequences of my actions or words. At the time that I'm writing this article, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and I just left a restaurant where a new waitress was on her first night on the job. I know she was nervous, and was more than likely feeling a little awkward. But she could've at least smiled, or is that something she has to be told to do? I had to wonder if it ever crossed her mind how she might be viewed by the patrons in that restaurant. I'm aware of the fact that I'm being a little hard on her, but she'll never know it. You see, I'm an observer of people, and I learn from them. Without knowing it, some of them instruct me how to act, while others are teaching me how NOT to act. All of them remind me to use my brain. Yes, I do see the faults in other people and learn from what I see, but I also see many of my own shortcomings....I just keep those to myself. What I'm really trying to do is become perfect. I've got a long way to go, and so do you. I've been watching us both. Preston