I often end up counseling folks through life’s changes while selling a home. There are marriages, divorces, new children, children leaving, and all sorts of health issues including the ultimate complication. Along the way I see traffic accidents that often remind me of some of those people-counseling experiences.
Baltimore, Maryland has a round-ish freeway, the 685* or “Beltway.” I once saw a Jeep Cherokee perfectly balanced on top of the median wall separating the North and South lanes. All four wheels were hanging uselessly with two on one side and two on the other. The human equivalent – “I don’t know what I did or how I got here. Now what?”
On the Grapevine between Los Angeles and Bakersfield a semi-truck lost control on the north, downhill side. It too ended up on the median wall, which had metal reflectors every foot or so. The reflectors sawed the 45-foot semi-trailer in half lengthwise, spilling its contents all over. Packaging was flying across the freeway and down into the nearby canyon. The human equivalent – “Life has dealt a crippling blow, and my life is scattered to the winds. Will I ever get things back together again?”
Driving on a back country road near Altamont California, site of the Rolling Stones Concert in 1969, I suddenly came over a hill to a complete road closure. The 16-year-old in the sedan behind me plowed into the back of my car. He had three younger siblings in the car. Something flew through the car’s interior and took out the windshield, completely! A second later the 12-month-old baby flew over the front seat and landed on the hood of his car. Not one scratch on the baby! The human equivalent – “God was watching out for us.”
When I was 17 years old, I was driving out of the Santa Margarita Canyon heading south from DeLuz when a boulder rolled down the hill and hit our family car. I got home and told my dad. He believed me but I questioned why. He said, “I am a Marine Corps Major. Even if you did have the brains to tell me you wouldn’t have the guts to do so. Go call the Highway Patrol.” The Highway Patrol dispatcher said, “Now son, you go home and sleep it off. OK?” The human equivalent – “Even when you know and are telling the complete truth some people will not believe you.”
My mother-in-law was involved in a head on collision and shot off the highway. The car did a 180-degree roll and landed upside down in a huge bush. The bush literally caught her and there she was hanging from her seatbelt, upside down as the airbags deflated. The paramedics came and cut her free, lowering her back to the Earth. The human equivalent – “Friends surround us when everything else has gone crazy. We are so caught up in the mess that it takes someone from the outside to see a way out.”
Video: https://youtu.be/UajTkr-7T60
- I wrote this on Saturday March 23rd and the Francis Scott Key Bridge fell with part of the 685 on Tuesday March 26th.
A Guy Named Bob 