The Crossroad of Today's Commute

It was a beautiful autumn morning, coffee at my desk, a few facebook exchanges, a new post. I made my bed and washed my coffee cup, checked to make sure I had all my printed materials, notebooks, and a change of clothes (you never know what direction the Mountain weather will go).I stopped at Bradley's for gas where I had a charming conversation with a man in a tomato red vintage Porsche. On to Sue Caicedo's real estate office and then a quick stop at Starbucks (I'm seriously hooked on their coffee). The business meeting with Alex Witt went well. I photographed the author and public speaker, Kristin Witt. It was a typical day in my world.

Alex and I headed down Stagecoach, our first stop was going to be one of our favorites, Lighthouse Graphics, to talk to Lorenzo and Julie about projects we were working on. In the middle of a conversation there it was a large black pick up truck in our lane heading towards us.
I stopped, and laid on the horn, the driver did not respond. There were two cars in the oncoming traffic lane they had stopped to give him space to return to that lane. The car behind me had stopped a car length behind. To the right was an incline, rocks and trees. Much to my amazement I analyzed all options in seconds - I was stopped, if I made a sharp turn to either the right or left he would broadside me, no side air bags, the front air bags might not deplore with impact, the physical damage would be horrendous to the person on the side he would hit. And, I would be that person, it wasn't a choice. Alex is 23, a hockey player with dreams of the Olympics
She just started a business with amazing potential. Alex has decades of living to do, to fall in love, give her parents grandchildren, and to become an influential business woman. I just turned 60, and have lived a great life. A side crash would certainly cripple me, I would end up in assisted living. That's not how I thought my life would turn out, I'm just now getting good at it.

The driver of the truck was not responding. Our best chance of surviving was a head on collision. I just kept thinking this is going to really really hurt. Really, Really, Hurt!
Just before impact take my foot off the brake and put it into neutral to lessen the resistance. This is really really going to hurt. A few hours from now we will be waking up in a hospital. This is going to so hurt. I could see his face, then suddenly he saw us and turned into the proper lane and kept driving.

We were frozen in a moment, we did not move, the other three cars did not move. What just happened! The people in the other cars, like us, were preparing for their beautiful autumn day to radically change. I'm sure they were all ready to call 911, to be brave and come to our aide, and I like to think someone was praying for us. It surprised me that I was not praying or begging the Universe to stop the truck, instead I was preparing for it. I was accepting that this was going to happen - and really really hurt - and we would recover.

Stunned we drove to Lighthouse Graphics, conducted our business, I dropped Alex off in downtown Evergreen and went to my appointments and a committee meeting. We both continued on with our business and obligations. And, I'm thinking how ironic that would of been, I just volunteered at Drive Smart and damn it Monday I raised my deductible to $1000, and how good is my health insurance.

But, my life changed today, in a second I saw what could be. I saw how quickly things could change. How delicate of a balance life is. How this one act would have changed the lives of so many people in a negative way. Today I was not in control of the outcome. Today my life changed and for most of my day I pretended I didn't notice. Each action is like a stone cast into still waters, it ripples out endlessly touching a multitude of lives. It was just a few moments on a beautiful autumn day that left everyone saying "what just happened!" I know what just happened - I came to my crossroad.