The rain slowed but the road was still covered with water. Visibility cleared, and the driver put the cruise control back on, hoping to maintain the 70 MPH speed limit on the rural road. A long appreciative glance the foothills of her youth let the wheel get off onto a rock shoulder. The many miles behind her left the tires bald. The noise drawing attention back, the driver overcorrected and sent the car into a spin. Soon it was going the almost the opposite direction, still at 70 MPH, out of control and off into a ditch. The landing back to four wheels was smooth, as if into a pillow created by 1000 angel’s wings. Finally the driver hit the brakes and cut the motor and the vehicle came to a stand still.
I was that driver. At that moment I was thankful for the absence of oncoming traffic, the absence of drop-offs, rocks, or trees or telephone poles just off the road, and the ability of car and driver to go on without function-impairing damage. Without a computer recording the history its hard to know when the cruise control came off. What is certain is that the car felt like it was accelerating through most of the incident and my brain couldn’t quite understand why. Inability to make split second decisions about speed control might be a reason not to use cruise control in the rain. It is also a reason not to go the speed limit in the rain.
Other reasons not to use cruise control are to force attention to the road with immediate feedback should the speed waver due to inattention. In that sense driving is like life. The old adage “grow or die” means we always need to be accelerating in life in order to prevent friction dragging us to a standstill. But if we do the same things every day, in the same measured doses to keep that acceleration content we don’t grow, instead we become content on cruise control. Routine is the cruise control of life. Routine gets dangerous enough to prevent growth when we are cruise control ignoring both danger and new opportunity.
As for me, I am thankful mistakes can be forgiven even while in this life, that some crashes result in soft landings on angel’s wings. I seek to keep the routine off and to stay alert to danger, to seek to optimize speed to potential opportunities.
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