Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
It is amazing how self-centered many people are! What I have to say today is a good example of that.
This evening I used a hand cart to move various personal effects out of my office and to my home, located about a kilometer away. As I was waiting to cross a one-way street located immediately in front of the building where my company’s business office is housed, I noted that a woman just to my right was likewise intending to cross.
She was about to step into a serious accident – and perhaps even to her death.
You see, in her haste to pass over-cautious me (with my hand cart), she had noted only that a car was coming from our left and that she would zip across the street quickly and “move on with her life” while I hesitated at the curb.
But she had failed to note one important thing! To our right, riding against the traffic was a man on a racing bicycle, moving along at a high rate of speed, ignoring the fact that nobody (except me) was taking the time to look to THE RIGHT as well as to the left…
The woman was about to step right into the bicycle’s path, when I screamed! “Look out! Look out!” while suddenly sticking my right arm out to prevent her from crossing.
What happened next was over in less than two seconds. The cyclist raced on past, oblivious that he and the woman had just missed grievous injury and/or death. Similarly, the car that had been coming from our left (and which had failed to note the danger – as the driver was texting on his cell phone) had passed by, some 50 centimeters in front of where the lady and I had halted at the curb. As for the woman, she looked at me as if to say, “What are you DOING?”
I attempted to explain what had just happened, but she chose to ignore me. She quickened her step and rushed across the street, wanting to put me out of her life.
How nice that I saved her life, possibly the cyclist’s as well – and made things less complicated for any other people who might have also been involved in the carnage that had been averted.
Yes, it was “Live and let live!” made manifest!
Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.