Tuesday, January 5, 2016
I realize that I committed to posting once a month, maybe once a week, but this experience today, my oh my, I simply felt compelled to share. By the way the two photos shown directly below have absolutely nothing to do with the story, I just get a kick out of seeing The Mouse in that fancy face-wear.
The look on the faces of the people who witnessed
the below described incident firsthand.
The Lyon Speaks:
FOLLOW THE LEADER – This Game of Life Just Got Real.
Picture this, a busy street on a cold Tuesday morning at the heart of rush hour in Newark New Jersey. It’s cold, not like frozen tundra cold, but cold enough to want to be at home in your union suit, curled up by the fire with a goblet of hot cocoa. The type of cold that you really only endure if you have to. Certainly no one in their properly thawed state of mind would CHOOSE to be here if given the option to be somewhere else. That said, I’m driving along on my way home at about 8am when I approach an intersection, the light is red. I am in one of three available lanes of southbound traffic, and I’m traveling in the center as I pull to a stop. I notice to my right, a city bus picking up and dropping off passengers. To my left is another full lane of traffic, waiting anxiously to take their cue, from the driver of a late model black SUV who is idling at the front of the pack; and directly in front of me is about a half a car length’s worth of space, an empty cross walk and a clear line of sight – or so I thought.
The light turns green. And maybe it was the daydreaming, maybe it was the frostbite, but before I could step on the gas, OUT OF THE BLUE an adult male maybe in his late forties, early fifties, went scampering past me (going left to right on your blogpost dial) holding up his hand in that Diana Ross & The Supremes sort of way, in a lame attempt to, I guess . . . hold us back, while dragging what looked like a 7 or 8 year old boy in tow . . . against the light. Maybe he was in a rush to catch the bus maybe not, but the point of note here is that he had to get across four lanes of anxiously moving north/southbound traffic, against the light, with a child in tow in order to, at this point get here and be standing in front of me, blocking my lane – did I mention that it was against the light?
Now to be perfectly clear this road has a total of five lanes (not including the curb lanes) three southbound and two northbound. And there are some other important factors to consider as you begin to fill in the picture in your mind: One, the intersection was busy. Two, the light had already changed to green. Three, traffic had already started moving, likely before the two started making their way across the intersection. And four . . . there is a child involved
Even with ALL of these . . . interesting thoughts running through my head, everything seemed to work out fine. Yet at that moment, I’m not sure I was fully prepared for what was about to happen next.
Here’s where the story gets scary interesting,
Most of the witnessing drivers I’m sure breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the man, who we’ll refer to as the Adult Supervision, and child began to clear the crosswalk and make their way, safely off to the side of the road. So, I in turn slowly and carefully began to pull away.
Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the driver of the late model SUV to my left, who at the first sign of clearance, slammed on the accelerator, out of the gate, and directly into the path of a second child who was playing a real life game of follow the leader in an ATTEMPT to get across five lanes of moving traffic and catch up to the others.
So naturally I stopped, and at that moment time stood still, and several thoughts went through my mind. I had a partially obstructed view of the front of the SUV, so I wondered: Was there any actual impact? Was the kid hurt or worse? Was MY angle of perception off just enough that I only THOUGHT that the kid was hit?
As it turns out, my instinct was correct and with traffic stopped once again, (Did I mention that the light was a green and this crossing was against the light?) a scared young boy popped up and into my field of view, and continued on his way hurriedly through the crosswalk and towards the outstretched wildly gesticulating index finger of the Adult Supervision; who by the way, seemed almost angered by the kid’s behavior. Considering all that JUST happened, this left me scratching my head and wondering what could the Adult Supervision be saying to the boy right now, that could possibly be helping the situation, right now? And really what could he be upset about? He’s gotta know that people, especially children, are more apt to do exactly what they see us do, right?
I wanted to get out of the car, (well not really, it was too cold) hand him a full-length mirror, and ask him for his thoughts on the rule of thumb when it comes to, playing the blame game? Roughly translated the rule says that when you have one finger pointing the blame at someone else, you usually have three fingers pointing back at you. Moral of the story, take responsibility.
I have found in both personal and professional experience, that someone amongst us is ALWAYS leading by example for someone else. So humbly I ask, if we are going to be leading by example anyway, doesn’t it make sense to take the time and lead by the right example? Just sayin’ that people, especially children, will most often do what we do, and not necessarily what we say.
Eventually I pulled away, slightly mesmerized by what just happened, and looking in my rear-view mirror I could see that the driver of the late model SUV was still sitting in the crosswalk. Not sure why, since the kid had long gone, Adult Supervision was nowhere to be seen, and traffic was back to normal once again. I betcha they were just as stunned by what happened as I was. Perhaps the shock, the fear and the confusion kinda got to ‘em, or maybe they were just very deep in thought and counting their blessings. Either that or they were just plain . . . frozen.
In spite of the length of this post, the whole incident happened in a span of about 9 seconds, and gave me yet another opportunity to count at least three of my blessings today:
“I am so happy and grateful now that . . .”
1) When it was time to stop, I came to a stop at least a full half car length from the crosswalk.
2) When it was time to go, my feet were too cold to push on the gas pedal.
3) One of the lessons I learned early in life; to look both ways before crossing the street,translates quite nicely as an adult behind the wheel of an automobile.
So what does all of this have to do with livingfunlovinglife?
Only E V E R Y T H I N G.
Every experience in our lives, has value and meaning. Whether blatant or hidden, we’ve been able to find the meaning, extract the value and apply the lessons. This has helped greatly in ordering our steps throughout the creative unfolding of our lives thus far.
Finding the humor, the meaning, the joy and the brighter side of life in any and all situations goes hand in hand with choosing everyday, to live a fun and loving life.
All The Best, Highest And Best.
And remember . . .
“When Your Life Is Fulfilled, The World Becomes A Better Place.
So, Do Something Everyday That Makes You Happy”
livingfunlovinglife 