In panic I met her eye. She frantically waved me through.
She could not know the fear that she triggered within me, or how this fear has plagued me every day that I walk across a street.
Many years ago, I was hit by a car. And I was hit by the same kind of self absorbed me first driver that almost ran into me the other day.
Similiar scenario. Vehicle in a huge hurry to beat other traffic turns left, not seeing the pedestrian in the crosswalk.
The car took me out at my knees and I was hurtled into the windshield. The force of my body hitting the windshield shattered it and I was carried me up the street about twenty feet. I then rolled off the vehicle, onto the side of the road.
I was very, very lucky. Sometimes people die from these things if they land on the pavement the wrong way.
The thing that I remember most about the incident is the faces that greeted me as I lay like a ragdoll on that wet Vancouver street.
In my bewildered state, I looked up to see a number of people urging me not to move, others urging someone to call an ambulance. Someone took off their jacket and laid it over me until the ambulance came.
Whether we like it or not we are wired towards compassion and heroism in a time of crisis. We instinctively care deeply about one another, something deep inside us recognises that the other is merely an extension of the self and it urges us to react in the best way possible when in crisis.
I'll drink to that.
http://goyestoeverything.com
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