No More Accidents

Accidents used to happen every once in a while. A person, not watching where he was going, slipped and fell, perhaps breaking an arm. A railing or a step broke because a piece of wood was weak. A tree branch fell on someone's car. A tire picked up a nail in the road, and blew. A driver's foot slipped off the brake pedal and hit the accelerator pedal. All of these things were the result of simple errors or minor neglect, but no one was considered to be at fault.

These days, such occurrences are considered accidents much less often. When something bad happens, someone must be blamed. Someone is "grossly negligent." Somebody intentionally created a dangerous situation. Someone is at fault. Whoever he is, HE MUST PAY. This has created what we call "a litigous society." When what was formally considered to be an accident occurs, we feel compelled to find a person to blame, and to make him pay for the damage or injury. We are encouraged by our insurance companies who never want to pay for anything. We are encouraged by trial lawyers who lust after a share of the payments.

Why can we not step back and accept the fact that bad things happen from time to time? Why can we not accept the fact that the broken railing or step has just become old, or had a defect that the owner was totally unaware of? Why can we not acknowledge that we ourselves may have been careless, or made a mistake that precipitated the damage? Why can we not repair the damage or injury at our own expense, and just move on? Because we are driven by our own anger and our desire for revenge. Our anger, greed, and selfishness are gradually destroying the concept of accidents.

In a gracious and civil society, people are more cautious. They also have more understanding, more forgiveness, more self awareness, and, unfortunately, a few more accidents.

Turkeys

Did you notice that all of the turkeys made their annual appearance on schedule, just a day or two before Thanksgiving?

• The turkeys I am talking about drive cars. They show up in hoards just before Thanksgiving day, to clog the roads and shopping mall parking lots. They are the ones who zip into that parking space you were about to enter. They run stop signs and red traffic lights. They make left turns from the right hand lane, and vice versa. They zoom up alongside you, cut in front of you, and then slow down.
  
• Many of them wear baseball caps, backwards of course. Others look deceptively normal. Some of them offer the one finger salute as a holiday greeting. This year most of them are using cell phones while they pull their rude and inconsiderate stunts.
  
• Then, just after New Years Day, the turkeys go back into hiding until the next Thanksgiving. During the rest of the year, only occasionally will one appear.

The Beginning

Someone told me that the pseudonym for a porn star is made by combining the name of his first pet with the name of the first street he lived on. My first pet was a dog we called Poochie. We lived on Williamson Road. Although I am not a porn star, I still like the name.

I started this second blog page in the hope of assembling an Andy Rooney-like collection of musings on various topics that catch my fancy (mostly in the nature of gripes). Maybe, if I publish them, I will be less likely to bore folks with them in daily conversation. The page will probably be found only by people who read my profile, or who stumble on it with the 'next blog' button, but I guess that's ok.