ScreeeeetcH!

"Yes and it feels
Just like running a red light
There ain't no point in looking behind us, no"

from "feel like a stranger"
by barlow/weir

everyone knows (at least i hope everyone knows!) that you should not run red lights. you should be polite and safe and come to a stop and not proceed until the light turns green.

safety first when you drive. safety first. politeness second.

none the less, it happens. sometimes we think the yellow light will stay yellow for a few seconds more, so we push it...other times we don't notice the red light...how can that be?

there was a road in jersey city called kennedy blvd (i think back in pre-kennedy days it was eisenhower blvd...poor dwight, in fifteen years' time his limelight was stolen). it had traffic lights on every corner...maybe a couple hundred feet apart, one on one side of the road and one on the other side of the road. there was more than a few times, when i was driving down that road that i didn't notice i went thru a red light, bc i was looking up ahead of me.

i felt bad. i felt scared. i apologised to the people in the car. my hands were shaking and i went "whoa" several times while exhaling deeply.

but, thankfully, there were no accidents. i was scared and shaken and humbled, but i was safe. i certainly payed more attention to the traffic light system on the blvd (at least for a few weeks). but i could do nothing about what happened. it happened. i ddin't want it to happen. i didn't mean for it to happen. but it happened.

"ain't no point in looking behind, let's go."

the idea is, leave the past in the past. learn what you can from it, apologise for it, ask for forgiveness for it, be shaken and scared...

but leave it there.