Sometimes it takes an accident to remind us that, as bad as things are, they could be a hell of a lot worse.
A truck was towing a car up the street in front of my house on Sunday afternoon when the strap broke. The car careened across a median and a lane of traffic before plowing onto my property, demolishing a beautiful hedge.
When I first saw the damage, I was livid. I’ve trimmed that hedge every summer for more than 20 years, so I was shocked to see it reduced to a pile of twigs scattered across the lawn, the sidewalk and the road.
After I berated the driver of the tow truck, explained the whole thing to a police officer, and arranged with the owner of the towing company to replace the hedge come spring, I calmed down enough to reassess what had happened.
First of all, no one was hurt in this mishap. (Or so I assume, judging by the fact that there were no bloodied pedestrians moaning on the sidewalk.)
Moreover, if the car had come to a stop literally two inches to the west of where it landed, it would have destroyed my front steps and smashed into the brick foundation of our 140-year-old house.
And if this missile on wheels had broken loose just a few yards sooner, near the opposite corner of the house, it would have barreled into one of our cars, which was parked at the end of our driveway.
When I read the following quote from the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, I was reminded of those photos that crop up in the newspapers periodically, showing a car lodged in someone's debris-filled bedroom: “See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.”
A truck was towing a car up the street in front of my house on Sunday afternoon when the strap broke. The car careened across a median and a lane of traffic before plowing onto my property, demolishing a beautiful hedge.
When I first saw the damage, I was livid. I’ve trimmed that hedge every summer for more than 20 years, so I was shocked to see it reduced to a pile of twigs scattered across the lawn, the sidewalk and the road.
After I berated the driver of the tow truck, explained the whole thing to a police officer, and arranged with the owner of the towing company to replace the hedge come spring, I calmed down enough to reassess what had happened.
First of all, no one was hurt in this mishap. (Or so I assume, judging by the fact that there were no bloodied pedestrians moaning on the sidewalk.)
Moreover, if the car had come to a stop literally two inches to the west of where it landed, it would have destroyed my front steps and smashed into the brick foundation of our 140-year-old house.
And if this missile on wheels had broken loose just a few yards sooner, near the opposite corner of the house, it would have barreled into one of our cars, which was parked at the end of our driveway.
When I read the following quote from the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca, I was reminded of those photos that crop up in the newspapers periodically, showing a car lodged in someone's debris-filled bedroom: “See how many are better off than you are, but consider how many are worse.”
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