For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to drive. Ever since I turned 16 and I could legally drive, I've loved to drive. I remember as a kid, while my dad sat in the driver's seat, and I sat in the back seat, I'd help him drive. He didn't know it, but I had my invisibile steering wheel that turned so precisely, my stick shift positioned next to me on the armrest on the door (even though we always had automatic), and my invisible gas and brake pedals at the ready (mostly gas, because I DO like to drive fast!). I kept my eyes on the road and watched for everything. And I was good. I'd turn when he turned and I'd slow down when he slowed down. Every once in a while, he'd surprise me with a sudden brake or a quick swerve. Oops! I didn't see whatever he saw, because face it. I was in the back seat. Maybe I would have seen it had I been in the driver's seat, but then again...maybe I just took my eyes off of the road for a split second because my sister was sticking her tongue out at me and I needed to take care of that issue immediately.
Fast forward to now, where any number of things can distract a driver. Believe me, I've seen quite a bit of that on my commute. Admittedly, I have also succumbed to being distracted. Whether it be that woman lighting a cigarette with both hands while trying to merge into heavy traffic, that kid looking on the floor for a new CD to put in while he's turning a corner, that girl that's texting next to you while you fly down the interstate at 80 (I mean, 55) miles per hour, or myself being lost in thoughts or listening to music, we are all distracted drivers.
I love to listen to musc while I drive. Driving and music are two things I really enjoy, so why not do them together for my hour-long commute? Multi-tasking! Sure, you say. Why not? It's not like I'm gabbing on my cell-phone and not paying attention while I almost take someone out while I'm trying to switch lanes. It's not like I'm texting on the cell and I don't see the wall of cars or the sudden braking in front of me. It's not even like I'm trying to eat my granola bar, drink my coffee, brush my hair, apply my make-up, AND drive stick-shift at the same time. I'm just trying to listen to Eminem and feel the pain and anger in his words, and trying to understand what he might have gone through and comprehend the vulnerability of actually putting all of that out there for the whole world to hear. Or maybe I'm just drifting off in my own thoughts. And then I snap back to trying to focus on the road, and it dawns on me that I'm a mile further down the road. I have no recollection of the last minute's worth of road travelled, and I wonder why the car behind me is not the same as the one I remembered. How did it warp into another color, make, and model? Crazy!
How am I different from those people that annoy me so much, because they cut me off or veer into my lanes at high speeds, and when I pass by to give them a death stare, I see they are only paying attention to their phones and what's being said or what they're reading, or they give me a surprised look like "What? What just happened?"
I might not have an easy thing to blame like a cell-phone. And as much as I'd like to see cell-phone use (yes, even those blasted earpieces or blue-tooth devices) banned while driving, I think we will always be distracted drivers. Before there were cell-phones, there were still the multi-taskers. Yes, you know the ones...the people who drive with two hands on the wheel. The better to hold up the book they are reading while they are rocketing down the interstate at 70-mph! Now they still read...just on smaller platforms, like the iPad, the Kindle, or even just a text on a simple cell phone. You have the people who love their music, and the ones who change CDs, change radio stations, or maybe even change cassette tapes, all while they attempt to maneuver through traffic and the lanes that dictate direction and order. You have the people who eat while driving, smoke while driving, and the ones who try to contain their children while driving. And you have the people who just listen to talk-radio as intently as if they were actually there, actively participating in the conversation.
So, for as much as I hate the cell-phone users and even the usage of it myself while driving, I have to get off of my soapbox and look at the other side of the coin. If you were to ban ALL distractions from driving, we would all still be walking to work. And even then, would you ban these distractions from walking as well? Because otherwise, we could end up in a man-hole because that text from our BFF saying "LMAO" was so important, we didn't see the huge, uncovered hole in the earth ahead of us.
I think it's human nature to distract ourselves. You don't want us to be bored while we are driving (or walking or running), right? We might then fall asleep at the wheel (or on the sidewalk or the track)! Narcoleptic, anyone??? But that could be a topic for another day.
Because the idea of a distracted driver is inevitable, the ideal place to run away to today is someplace with no cars. Let's run away to the mountains and go hiking! Let me know of some great places you have been to and would love to go back to. I think the best hiking I've done (and granted, it hasn't been a ton...) was in Elk Ridge, Utah. There weren't any opportunities for distractions, because you needed to keep making sure you didn't slip off of the log you were crossing over the falls with, and you had to keep your footing in check on the rocks you were scaling on the side of the mountain. Scary, for sure...and it DID quench any thrill-seeking for a while!
No comments:
Post a Comment