By Cathy Jameson

I saw a video on Friday night that went viral not too long ago.  It was of a driver who slowed down then completely stopped on a major freeway.  Two lanes away from an exit ramp, the driver sat in the lane he had been traveling for what seemed like a good, long minute.  During that time, other drivers were forced to stop and wait for him to move.  Easily, he could have and should have continued on, but he made a disastrous decision.  

Instead of continuing ahead and rerouting, the driver inched his way to the right toward the exit-only lane he initially missed.  In doing that, a pretty significant multi-car accident occurred.  Where his vehicle sustained a bump, others were left crumpled in a heap surely causing delays for other drivers approaching that area.  I didn’t follow up with the story to know if the driver who stopped on that busy road was charged with any moving violations.  What I did do later was think about how simple and logical it would’ve been for that driver to just keep going straight.  

To let the GPS reroute him.

To take the next exit.

And to work his way backwards toward his destination.  

But he made a choice that will take time for others to heal from.

I’ve wanted to blaze ahead and just get done what I wanted to get done.  But something held me back. 

I’ve wanted to ignore the rules and skip through a line faster, too. But something told me not to. 

I’ve wanted to back out of a situation quickly.  But something later told me had I done that I’d have missed learning a lesson from it.  

In our little community here, we’ve learned lessons we never thought we’d have to.  And we’ve done that with each otherbecause of each other’s experiences.  Our experiences are painful, especially when we dwell on what happened to our child and their health.  And I promise you I wish what happened never did!  But had they not, would we be who we are today?