Thursday, August 24, 2006

Sudden Impact


"To be a witness to a man's deliverance upon his destiny, tis an imprint that does not fade, but is burnt forever into your knowing."

I said that. THE Michael.

I came to me about 38 seconds before I wrote it just now. But it was borne of the accident I witnessed yesterday driving the wife to work. I glanced up into my rear view mirror just in time to see an idiot, on a rice rocket, without a helmet, streaking down the opposite lane at about 85 mph into the side of a mini-van. It reminded me of those film clips you see of a missile impacting a tank. It was just about the most violent split second I ever witnessed. The rider, who was driving this bike like he'd stolen it and wanted to die real bad, did. REAL bad. The driver of the mini-van, an older lady, was a patient in my unit when I went to work this morning. She suffered badly enough, but was fortunate to be on the opposite side of the impact, as a passenger in that seat would have been lucky to survive at all. Fortunately, there was no passenger on that side, which was mangled and cratered as if it had encountered an IED on the streets of Baghdad. A sight like that is all it takes to remind you that shit came come out of nowhere and change your life forever, or end it altogether. So party. Party HARD.

In other news............well....fuck other news. I'm still thinking about yesterday.

7 comments:

Time said...

There but for the grace of Bob go we.

Romeo Morningwood said...

It's called Natural Selection.

You are right about the unpredictability of Life. We just completely ignore it until an event unfolds right in front of us.
We should not take anything for granted...but we can't live at such a high level of alert ..ulcers,cardiac arrest..psychotic episodes are sure to follow..

Luckily, like Cows, through millenia of careful breeding we have lost most of our high alert senses and now we stare over the fence chewing our cud.

That visual must have been stuck on auto replay all day..

JP (mom) said...

What a horrifying experience.

However, I love your words: "To be a witness to a man's deliverance upon his destiny, tis an imprint that does not fade, but is burnt forever into your knowing."

An eloquent truth.

Alex Pendragon said...

Tim: Exactly!

HE: It would be nice if they would weed themselves out of the gene pool using brick walls instead of little old white haired ladie's cars. And yes, it occupied my mind for a long time afterwards.

Jane: Thanks, hun, and......."Tis a shame a peacefull passing is rarely so eloquent....."

anna said...

I remember witnessing a horrific car accident several years ago. The image replayed itself in my mind's eye over and over and over again for months. I still think about it from time to time.

Alex Pendragon said...

yes, Anna, it sticks with you for awhile.....

Katskia said...

I didn't even read the blog..(sorry)....because I fell in love with the picture. Who is the artist? Tell. Please?

Paula