The Supreme Being just gave me a dope-slap - Thanks!

[Earthman]

This day started off pretty bad. I developed a crush on a certain young lady about a year ago, and towards the recent holiday season I started getting the feeling that I should let her know how I felt. Unfortunately, I made several ham-handed, thumb-fingered, bonehead mistakes, and as a result I got an e-mail just past midnight last night in which she told me that she would rather remain friends.

OK, well, I'm a big boy, and I know that things don't always turn out the way that you want them to. To be honest, it's a bit of a relief, since I honestly liked this girl as a friend before I became attracted to her, and I was afraid that I would spoil the friendship. Still, I was filled with a profound sense of disappointment, and to tell the truth, I was feeling more than a bit sorry for myself this morning. I resolved to try to keep myself busy, and went out to run a few errands.

After I had been out for a while, I turned a corner (Fredericksburg & Callahagn, for those of you in San Antonio) and was surprised to see a Ford Tempo, about 50 yards away from me, sliding slowly on its roof towards a stop. I pulled over into a parking lot and grabbed my road flares, and ran over to the wreckage. I was about 20 to 30 seconds later than the first wave of 6 or 8 bystanders, who were crowding around the windows of the overturned vehicle. I decided to look for leaking fuel, and when I was sure that there wasn't any, I went back around to the driver's side.

The bystanders, presumably in fear of fire (from all those TV shows, no doubt) and with a woeful amount of ignorance, had opened the driver's door and were in the process of dragging her out, without any sort of bracing on her back or neck. It all happened so fast - at the same instant that I was sure that the car wouldn't explode, they pulled her free, in an attempt to save her. [Crow T. Robot] Hey, be sure to move her spine around a lot![/Crow T. Robot] Fortunately, she did not seem to have any spinal injuries, but she was 6 or 7 months pregnant. There was a nurse at the scene, (this happened near the Medical Center in San Antonio, where lots of health-care professionals live and work), who attended the pregnant woman - she didn't seem too worried, but then again, she isn't supposed to. EMS showed up about four minutes later (it seemed like forty, byt realistically, that was the best time they could have made), and so I moved my car out of the way and vacated the area. At this time, I do not know what happened to the mother (and I think that there may have been a second victim in her car, but I'm not sure) - I have been checking the local news websites, and there's nothing up yet.

Although I am not a practicioner of any organized religion (I have always found more in the study of religion than in the practice of it), I sort of feel like the Supreme Being has grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, pointed my face in the direction of tragedy, and said, "SURE, YOU LITTLE BONEHEAD, YOUR LIFE ISN'T PERFECT - BUT JUST LOOK AT HOW MUCH WORSE IT COULD BE!"

So, has anyone else ever had God give you a dope-slap? What did you learn?

[BunnyGirl]

Yeah. The past two years have been kind of difficult for me emotionally. I've been growing a lot, learning a lot, going through a big sifting process in my general worldview. I'd bee pretty discontent with my life (even though it was about as great as it could get, content and family-wise). I was doing that

"what if I'd..."pick one below)
a) married someone different
b) stayed in the military
c) gone to college
d) had kids

Anyway, my oldest friend calls up and tells me her 37 year old husband died last night of a stroke. They have a 4 month old and a 4-year old. Completely made me ashamed of my discontent and "what-ifs". All I could keep thinking was "Thank you God for reminding me what I have!"

[BunnyGirl]

Actually, she didn't call me last night; she called the night after it happened.

[Earthman]

:bump:

Well, there's nothing up on the local news websites, so I assume that the victim(s?) will be OK. If it was serious, I'm sure that one of out gore-obsessed (that's a lower-case G) TV stations would have shown something by now.

It's a bit strange, how seeing something like this affects you. I have seen this sort of thing happen before - and I've never quite gotten over that, either. I feel a bit disconnected right now - like I'm looking at everyone and everything else from afar.

I probably just need some sleep - but for some reason, I really don't want to seek my bed just now. PTSD, anyone?