I believe that if the World's population act cooperatively then people could help one another out of difficulties and build a global paradise for everyone to enjoy for all time to come.
Throughout 2016 I published 53 blog posts arguing the case for...
Seven or eight months ago, someone I know was involved in a car accident. Over the previous 17 years or so since getting his driving licence, Alex had had a few close calls but had luckily escaped a collision. You see, he would sometimes get bored while driving, and get distracted with things like changing the radio station, or glancing at something in the car, a map or road directions or something, and would then sometimes have to take evasive action when he returned his eyes to the road and saw he was on a collision course. "Phew! That was a close one!" he would say. Despite these frights, he never changed his bad habit of fidgeting, taking his eyes of the road for short intervals, and generally being careless when driving when he should have been giving his undivided attention to the road ahead at all times.
A day or so before the accident, Alex had clumsily scratched the hired company car. It wasn't significant damage, but the car hire firm would surely bill his work once they found out about it, and Alex was afraid of being dressed down by his boss. Over the next day or so Alex tried unsuccessfully to find a garage who might be able to fully repair the damage, but each mechanic he asked said the damage would show through the repair. Alex was utterly annoyed with himself, and was in a gloomy and angry mood up until the moment of the accident.
It was about midday when Alex and a colleague got into the hire car. They had parked at the side of a country road. Alex started the engine and the car began to slowly move off. Alex wasn't comfortable about something and, while the car moved forward slowly, he turned in his seat to move something that was in the back seat. As usual, he knew he was taking a chance, but he had years of experience of being a 'chancer' and getting away with it. With his attention on the back seat, he heard a voice say, "Look out!" (his colleague later denied saying anything, as he also hadn't been looking forward). Alex quickly looked back at the road just at the instant an approaching large car, travelling at about 50mph, glanced off his side of the car. Alex's car immediately came to a stop.
"Shit! Shit!" whispered Alex.
He couldn't believe that he'd just crashed the company car. He checked that his colleague was not seriously injured, then got out of the car to check on the other driver, who was uninjured. Both cars had the full length of their driver sides badly scraped, and the front driver wheel mangled up.
The police arrived and took statements. Alex gave a frank account of what had happened: he had taken his eyes off the road and so wasn't sure if his car had crossed over onto the other side of the road. The other driver said that Alex's car had veered onto his side of the road, and so he had tried to avoid it by going up the grass verge, but had still glanced it. The police warned Alex that he may face a prison sentence for reckless driving. Alex knew he also had to face his boss, and suffer the shame and embarrassment of facing his colleagues, and thought he would probably lose his job. He contemplated losing his income and so maybe losing his home, being fined and actually being sent to prison. By comparison to the minor scratch to the car he'd caused a day or so earlier, which had angered and saddened him so, this was massive. Alex should have been devastated. Only, he wasn't. He was happy. Euphoric even. You see, even though he'd had a seat belt on, Alex had hit his head on the window frame during the collision and had cut his head slightly. He realised that if the cars had overlapped by an inch or so more during the collision (perhaps if he hadn't 'heard', "Look out!") what had been a glancing blow might have been a solid contact and both cars suddenly stopping. This would have meant that Alex's head would have struck the same window frame but with a massive force. Alex then imagined what might have been - his body, and perhaps even those of his passenger and the other driver, being zipped up in a body bag. Instead, he was now sitting in the back of a police car, giving a statement and being warned about possible prison time. The thought of prison, losing his job and home, and a large fine was absolutely OK with Alex - because he was alive! He was SO happy simply to be alive, to be given a second chance at life, to be let off with a warning at what might have been.
As it transpired, no criminal charges were made, and Alex's company insurance paid for the damage. However, to this day, Alex is simply happy to be alive, and he is a very careful driver, ever respectful of what might befall him if he were to return to his old negligent ways. He has never forgotten the terrifying image of that large car just before it collided with his car.
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I wonder if Alex's story tells us something about the people of Earth as a whole. In general, Earthlings are being careless in their 'driving' of the planet. They are warned about the dangers to health and the climate by burning fossil fuels, but they don't take the required remedial action. They are incautious with their treatment of one another in general, blindly chasing profit and power. They have 'close calls' in the form of localised climate disasters, rebellions, troubles, etc., but they are desensitised to it, and continue with life as normal, not making the necessary changes to their lifestyles. So maybe it will take a man-made global disaster from which man narrowly escapes for the human race to finally appreciate life, to then be happy to simply be alive, to start to take care of one another and the shared planet, to 'drive' Earth safely, to always remember their global crisis moment and to be frightened of inviting another global catastrophe ever again ("a burnt child doesn't play with fire").
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I remember what may have been the end of a larger dream I had a few years ago, where I was standing next to a seated 'young' man to my left. I was crying, as I said, "Does there have to be a war?"
Smiling and talking like a caring adult to a naive child, he replied, "Yes, the World's in the grip of the bad guys."
