“It isn’t what happens to us that causes us to suffer; it’s what we say to ourselves about what happens.” -Pema Chodron
I was walking down the street the other day looking for a new client’s office and I was having a little trouble finding it. I really didn’t know that end of town very well, so I was concentrating more on the numbers on the buildings than where I was going.
As I turned the corner, hopeful I was headed in the right direction, I heard a loud clattering sound and looked up. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a huge man on a bicycle careening down the sidewalk, arms and legs flailing. He was obviously unable to steer, let alone stop.
Immediately realizing the danger, I dropped my briefcase and dove head-first into the nearby bushes, narrowly escaping an accident with an overweight hit-and-run cyclist.
I popped out of the shrubbery, branches in my hair, and looked down the sidewalk. He was gone.
What a jerk! What was he doing on the sidewalk with that bike? And anyway, what was he doing on a bicycle in the first place when he clearly wasn’t able to ride one? He should be off learning somewhere else. The nerve.
He could have killed me! How unbelievably dangerous. What on earth did he think we have streets for? Sidewalks are for pedestrians, not bikes, especially not for out of control ones. What if an old lady had been in his way? She would have had no chance at all. Imagine. The gall of this guy. (more…)
