What You Do Today Effects Others Tomorrow

Photo Courtesy of Elaine with Grey Cats

Are you one of those drivers who makes others on the road cringe?  Do you drive too fast, conveniently forget to signal, or pull out in front of others?  Are you a distracted driver, or even worse, one who texts and drives at the same time?  I recently witnessed a near traffic accident because of one of these careless drivers. 

My jogging route near my home takes me through 2 different neighborhoods.  My halfway point is a u-turn at the rear entrance of one of these neighborhoods.  This entrance is a divided 500 feet median covered with flowering shrubs, plants and trees.

One day, a distracted guy, in a frantic rush, decided to speed up and rush ahead of oncoming traffic and pulled in to the wrong side of this divided entrance.  In his haste, he almost drove into a minivan full of young soccer hooligans on their way to soccer practice.  There was plenty of screaming and honking, as well as some not so friendly waving, that followed this guy's poor decision to rush.

As I was standing 10 feet from the van, I got a bird's eye view of the reaction of the van's passengers. What really struck me was the look on one young girl, who was probably only 6 or 7 years old.  She was terrified at having been so close to an accident.  

This guy's decision, and the actions that followed, didn't just involve dire consequences for himself only.  There were 8-10 others who faced almost certain injury because of his mistake.

Our actions have consequences, not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. Just because you want to make poor decisions with your life, be aware that the consequences effect others around you, both directly and indirectly.

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions. ~ Stephen R. Covey