Look Where You're Going

I had a close call whilst out on my motorcycle yesterday.  I was distracted by a woman in a convertible Mustang that passed me at, shall we say, a gallop.  I resolved to join the Mustang in her spirited run down the highway and merged right to position myself immediately behind the shiny red, opened top car.  Unbeknown to me, there was a shitbox Subaru behind the ‘Stang which I failed to heed. Fortunately the Subaru driver saw me coming and, to avoid pit maneuvering me into oblivion, moved to the very right side of his lane and disaster was averted. I slunk back into the left lane, embarrassed and angry with myself.  

This moment of inattention reminded me of my 10 year-old self when my Mum offered me some pearls of wisdom.  I recall two pieces of advice, one good, one disastrous. I was getting bullied at school and Mum said words to the effect of ‘if you need to, it’s okay to hit back.’  The prevailing message of the time was that fighting was bad and should be avoided but, with Mum’s green light, the next time the kid had a crack at me, I dropped him.  Problem solved.  The other thing, apart from having a kid causing me distress, I also had a dog giving me grief on my daily ride to school.  “Kick it’” was Mum’s sage advice.  Okay, challenge accepted.  

The next morning when Fido came at me, I started swinging at him with my right foot, mostly missing but giving it a red-hot go. When I looked back to the road, I saw the front wheel of my Malvern Star Dragster disappear over a culvert.  I went over the handlebars and landed on rocks and other debris at the bottom of a very deep culvert.  It was a painful lesson to look where you’re going.         

Sometimes I’m seriously impressed that I am still alive.