Timing

I was at work today and had a fairly normal, run of the mill close call with a car at a road crossing. I'd estimate we missed him by about 5 seconds or so. That got me to thinking about timing and how every day run of the mill decisions can have huge, long term effects on our lives. 5 seconds doesn't seem like a lot, but it was a lifetime for that guy. It was the difference between continuing on to his destination or catching a 10,000 ton train in his driver's side window. I started thinking about what if I had been going a couple of miles per hour faster, or if I had accelerated harder from my last stop, or if he had dropped his keys getting in the car. That turns my seemingly normal decision to run 30 mph instead of 33 or 34 a life changing decision.

In turn that made me think about some of the other seemingly innocent decisions we make that alters your life. My son Nathan is a great example of this. If I stop at any one of the half dozen or so gas stations I passed on my way to work everyday instead of going out of my way to go to the OneStop station out by the interstate I never meet his mom. If I don't meet his mom, we never fall in love and the poor little guy never exists. That is one seemingly meaningless decision in my life I'm glad I made (and I bet he's glad too). See mom, you should be happy I'm a smoker, if not I don't have the 2 great sons I have and you miss out on 2 awesome grandkids.

I guess it's the chaos of this life that I find so interesting. The seemingly mundane things in life that could turn into life changing events. Do I stop here or there? If I go here I could meet the love of my life, but on the other hand she may in fact work there. Do I go the speedlimit, or a little under or over? One speed I could get drilled by the guy running the stop sign but at another I'll be ahead or behind, and there is no way to know for sure which is the right one. Just total chaos with no way to know the right or wrong answer until after the fact. Keeps us on our toes doesn't it?