You Just Had to Be There

I only had my driver’s license for a few months and was thrilled that I was able to drive my well-used car to school. After a long day at school, which ended with a gruesome film on automobile safety, I hustled out of the building and sped toward home. I only had a short time to get there, get something to eat, and get to work at a local super market.

Driving without memory of the film I had just watched I went around a blind bend to see a pick-up truck sitting still in the road but a few yards in front of me. I later found out that the driver had rolled down his window and was visiting with some associates who were paving a driveway. Obviously, I slammed on the brakes. Within a split second all I could see was the hood of my car folded up before the windshield. The sound of the crash was horrible, the smell of spilled radiator fluid sickening. The man in the pick-up was able to drive on to his place of business where he called the police to say he thought he had been in an accident. Fortunately, neither of us was injured and his truck had limited damage, unlike my car which had to be towed. His integrity was called to question by the judge in the subsequent court hearing.

The next day at school I was telling some of my friends about the accident. One of them kept asking me, “Why didn’t you stop?” He would not accept the fact that I tried to stop but did not see the truck in time. He further questioned me on why I didn’t see the other vehicle sooner. “It was a blind bend,” I explained repeatedly. For some reason he could not grasp the concept of going too fast, couldn’t see around the bend, and couldn’t stop in time. If I had it to do over again I would have said, “You just had to be there.”

Many times we question the decisions people make without being fully aware of the circumstances that led them to make those decisions. Too often we fail to give others the benefit of the doubt or question their judgment. We would probably all be better served if we reserved our judgment until we had and understood all the facts. Even better, maybe we should consider the need to “be there” in making a judgment for perhaps some day we will be there.