So Much to Write...

It's been a while since I've been on, and I have so many exciting stories to tell that I think I'm going to have to break up this post and publish several shorter posts over the next several days. I know I always get a sudden sinking feeling when I see massive numbers of words staring at me from my computer screen and instantly want to abandon whatever venture I am pursuing at that time. So, in order to prevent that feeling down the road if/when I come back and read all these posts, I'm going to publish little, shorter stories, a series of stories, if you will. So, chapter one...

On Tuesday, June 29th, I was riding back from vising some friends downtown when I was hit by a car. Now, this whole experience barely has any real substance to it because I didn't think very much of it at the time and I still don't. I wasn't hurt and the driver of the car of course wasn't hurt, so right off the bat I can't even put an element of drama into it because I feel silly playing up something that, compared to what could have happened, wasn't even a big deal. But, of course, there are lessons to be taken from every experience, although they may not be the lessons apparently obvious to the situation.

Lesson #1 (the obvious lesson): One must watch for cars even while biking on a bike path like the Lakefront Path (this is where I was hit). This lesson should be ridiculous, but apparently is not, because apparently, cars are everywhere. But that is a discussion for another time.

Lesson #2 (the not-so-obvious lesson): Remaining calm and diffusing high stress, high intensity situations, especially if you are the victim of such situations, is a genius plan for making taxing situations play out smoothly and briskly. When I was laying on the ground, after I had just been thrown off my bike, I did a little self assessment on my self using my basic EMT knowledge from class and, noting that I was at least A&O x3 and didn't feel any pain except an understandable headache, I knew nothing was completely life threatening right at that moment. So instead of freaking out, I spent the time talking to and making jokes with the people around me, in particular the driver of the car that hit me. He was really freaking out when he first ran over, but after a few minutes of talking to him and calming him down, the whole experience shifted from panic to almost placid.

In the end, it turned out to be a semi-positive experience. Except for the fact that my bike was destroyed. BUT, no one was hurt, and that's the important thing. My Zen says I should not become attached to physical materials, and my Grandpa has instilled in me (through my wrecking of the family car) that material possessions are easily fixed and should never be fretted over. Between the two of them, I feel as though I had a handle on the whole situation and gave it my best shot at having a positive outcome.