Enough of politics...
Yesterday I was walking down to the corner store to pick up something for my lunch. I'm not sure what was on my mind, but my guess is that it had something to do with the elections. Something in my senses triggered me to wake from my mental daydream as I approached the intersection. There was a semi truck pulling an empty flat-bed trailer turning right onto the street along which I was walking. It was a pretty tight turn for the truck and, as a result, the tires of the trailer crossed up onto the sidewalk and actually almost hit the building on the corner.
I've never driven a semi, so I can't really comment as to whether it was driver error--it seems like a tight corner, but I marveled at my fortune that I somehow managed to see it coming and waited on the sidewalk until the danger had passed. I began to think about the possible outcome if I had been on my cell phone--or if I had been a mother with a small child. Would the semi have hit me? I thought about how when walking or riding a bike, it is necessary to be hyper-aware of your surroundings--but I know while I drive, I sometimes find myself in a different mental zone. That doesn't seem to make any sense.
I then began to marvel that, here in America, we get our driver's licenses at the age of 15 or 16 --when our reflexes are at their fastest--and we are never required to renew our "certification" (until we are seventy). Driving is probably the most dangerous activity in which we engage--yet there is no continuing education. Does anyone else see that as insane?
