One car ahead of you

deer


Well, the deer are out in full force. I picked my daughter up from a get together Saturday night and we stopped near our house to shoot some deer. It was very dark, so the photos aren't that great and they are a little grainy. But we (and they) were mesmerized.

I was driving yesterday and apparently wasn't going fast enough for somebody. He made a point to zoom around me and cut back right in front of me. I thought to myself "Gee, mister. In a hurry?" And, proceeded to forget him and returned to my dreamy drive of whatever I was thinking.

A few miles up the road we were stuck driving slowly behind a (oh, no) white van. Another white van! Yikes. A deer came from out of nowhere and hit the car (guy) that was in front of me. The deer was spun around, but she got up and bounded back from whence she came.

The guy in front of me came to a stop and must have been dazed. I waited for him to gather his senses to see if he was just going to sit in the roadway or pull to the side or continue on. He drove ahead a few feet and pulled over. I looked back at him in my rear view mirror. No damage to his car, he probably was just getting out to check it out and calm down. It could have been much worse.

A mile or so up the road, it dawned on me. If he hadn't shot around me, that could have been me that hit the deer! It was a sobering thought. So, the next time somebody cuts you off or becomes irritated at your driving too slow, smile and wave at them. Let them go.

Years ago when a driver zipped around me like that, with my daughter (then five) in the car, I looked over at her and we both had a kind of surprised look on our faces. I laughed and said "He must have the diarrhea!" Oh my God, she thought that was so funny. To this day when it happens we look at each other. "He must have the...." Mmmmhmmmm.

Which brings me back to a memory. During one of our day trips (I was always trying to bring some kind of educational vacation into my daughter's life), we went to Cosi in Columbus. I came upon an exhibit of a wrecked car in a cage. I read the story on the exhibit. I can't recall the details exactly, but in essence it read that there were four teenagers in the car. In the seconds of the accident, the passenger in the front seat reached down and pulled up on the hand brake.

This simple act resulted in the back of the car hitting a tree and killing the two in the back, letting the two up front live. If the passenger had not applied the brake, the opposite would have happened. Or the other way around, I don't recall the exact details. And, I don't have any idea how they figured this out, but they are a respected science center and certainly know more than I about these things.

And the story said, "So is our destiny fate or pre-determined?" Or, something similar. It got me to thinking. And, I came to the conclusion (for me, anyway) it is fate. Why? How did I come to this conclusion? Because if our fate is pre-determined, then why do people run and hide from a sniper? Why not just walk calmly out in the open saying to yourself "Hey, if it's my time to go , it's my time to go." Yeah. You can find me in the bushes.