One poor decision can change many lives. Sometimes in the blink of an eye!
I was driving home this evening and stopped in the left turn lane! Two cars ahead of me a young lady had pulled into the intersection to make her left turn! When the light turned red she started to back up! I don't know why! But, then she made a really poor decision! She excelerated forward and turned in front of oncoming traffic! The first two lanes stopped in time! The van in the third lane did not! He t-boned her. Her minivan spun 270 degrees, jumped the medium and slammed into the car in front of me!
In the blink of an eye, three lives changed! In the long term, the lives of their friends and families changed as well! It is very fortunate that no one suffered a life threatening injury! As I sat on the ground beside her tring to keep her calm until the ambulance arrived, she ask me how bad the car was damaged! I did not tell her it was a total loss! And, I did not spit when I realized that she was not going to ask about the people in the other vehicles!
Now, this young lady can not be confused with the people of this community, where we live in "Collateral Kindness" and care about each other! However, I could not help but recognize, in her, some of the traits we displayed as smokers! First of all, she made some poor decisions! We all used to do that! I made about 40 of those a day! If you smoked a pack a day, you made 20 poor decisions a day! Also, she put herself ahead of all others, without a second thought! How offen did we put our addiction ahead of everything? How many important events in our lives did we miss because we were off looking for a place to feed our addiction? Did we even think twice about the effect our actions were having on others? I will not answer for you! And, you do not have to admit anything!
Tonight, I come here to express my thankfulness! I am thankful that I was able to break Free of addiction! I am thankful that you did too! If you are not Free yet, I am thankful that you have the opportunity to be Free, and, you have this wonderful community to support you! I am also thankful that while we are able to put our quits first, we put our fellow EXer's in the forefront of our thoughts! We care about each other!
I pray that all will recover, and be well from the wreck! And I pray that one young lady will one day discover that it is not All about her!
Tommy
