Sometimes I feel like I’m driving down the road of life at a 100 mph, but I feel like I’m sitting still and getting absolutely nowhere.  I love to drive fast, but when I drive fast under my own power my works look momentarily cool stirring up dust behind me, but then the dust settles and disappears.  I spend so much time driving my car fast  I don’t take the time to stop and have it repaired, until one day the engine of the car stops running on empty and gives up, unable to go on anymore, broke down beside the road.  No one stops to help, everyone rushing by at 100 mph, too busy creating their own swirls of dust to even see me broke down beside the road.  

I open the glove box hoping to  find an old candy bar or a bottle of water, but I’d been too busy to stop and add emergency supplies to the car.  All I saw was the owners manual.  What a dry boring book, I’d  never bothered to read it, it looked as new as the day I bought the car.   I picked it up, I had nothing else to do and maybe I would find something  to help me get back on the road.  I looked up all the light symbols lit up in red on the dash board; oil can…..low on oil, annoyed I realized I didn’t have a spare bottle of oil in the car.  Tire with a slash through it……low tire pressure, disgusted with myself again I realized I didn’t have an emergency tire inflator in my car either.  A third light told me the engine had overheated, now there was something I could be proactive about, I could wait for the engine to cool down….but I still couldn’t drive it without oil.  So I sat there next to the road berating myself for my broke down condition.  Flashing lights pulled up behind me, a police officer strolled up to me and ticketed me for sitting next to the road in a broke down car.  He did offer to call a tow truck for me, but I refused.  If I called a tow truck I would have to let him tow my car.  If I let the tow truck tow my car it  meant I had given up control of where my car went and no one drove my car but me.  The officer strolled back to his car leaving me alone again.  

I was tired after all the years of racing around creating dust, so I leaned my seat back, closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep.   A moment later I jerked awake as a semi-truck blew past my car rocking it from side to side.    I almost wished I had let the police officer call for a tow truck, but I hadn’t and now it was getting dark.  The cars that whizzed past me had turned on their lights.  Obviously I’d slept several hours.  I picked up my cell phone to check the time and saw my battery level blinking at 2 percent.  I panicked.  Then I saw the car manual again where I had tossed it onto the passengers seat.  On the front cover in oversized bold print was a number I could call for roadside help.    

I picked up my cell phone, which now blinked at 1 percent and contemplated calling the number.  I needed to call soon, but I paused for just a moment longer to review my options.   Ok, so there weren’t many, I could sit here broke down next to the road, cold and hungry in the dark and soon be without cell service or I could call the number on the front of the Owners Manual.  A few more thoughts flashed through my mind, I remembered vaguely seeing other broke down  cars for just a moment through the haze of dust and the memories of the people  sitting in their cars weren’t pretty, but I was going so fast it was easy to ignore them.  I didn’t want the same thing to happen to me.  I didn’t want to stay trapped in my car forever because I couldn’t give up control of who decided where the car went.  I needed help!

I hadn’t even finished dialing the number when a tow truck pulled in front of me and a man jumped out and hurried over to my car.  He opened my door and helped me into the front cab of his tow truck.  Next he reached into the back of his truck and pulled out a take out bag from my favorite restaurant.  While I opened my bag and pulled out my favorite meal he smiled and walked back to hook up my car.  Three semi-trucks blew past and didn’t even ruffle his hair.  Finished with making the car secure he hopped into the front of the cab and drove us to the repair shop.   We pulled up to the shop and I wiped the last of the crumbs off my face.  Delicious!   I got out and watched the driver unhook my car.  He pulled a white rag out of his pocket and proceeded to wipe all the dust off my car.  The scratches in my cars paint and the small dings disappeared.  He popped the hood and with the same rag wiped all the grease from the engine.   When he was finished he folded the cloth and put it back into his pocket.  I was wide-eyed when I saw the cloth was as white as when he had started, but my car looked like it had on the show room floor.   He opened the passenger side door and offered to take me for a drive.  I hesitated for a moment because I like to drive my own car.  But, I decided to live dangerously and hopped into the car eager to see what else this man could do.  He got into the drivers seat and started the engine, it purred as if it were brand new.  I looked at the odometer, “000,000”.  Why hadn’t I called for help sooner?