MINDLESS MUSINGS

Driving home from my job in Banksia I usually turned down Bestic Street. This was a day much unlike any other and I was happily driving on my way home. I made the turn I had done so many times before and was musing about what I would do when I got home. My mind was only partially on the road.

I do not know what alerted me, but I distinctly remember feeling a sense of impending danger. For reasons I will try and explain later my foot instinctively came off the accelerator and rested lightly on the brake.

The kid came out of nowhere! From between two parked cars a kid appeared out in front of my car. I hit the brakes and missed him by centimetres. I can still clearly recall the angry scowl on the mother’s face as she collected her nearly squished son from the middle of the road. She glared at me as if it were somehow my fault. She did such a god job of it I almost believed I was somehow to blame rather than just feeling relieved for the near miss. My heart was racing! Damn it was close!

I continued on my way home and escaped the wrath of the mother. Shame there was no sign of thankfulness in her demeanour. I guess she needed someone or something to blame instead of accepting that it was a freak accident; a freak accident that thank God had a happy ending.

So what do we put it down to?

A miracle? Perhaps.

My time spent studying psychology has another less mystical explanation. I believe that without my conscious mind noticing I did see the kid run in between the two cars via my peripheral vision. Without consciously thinking about it my foot left the accelerator and hovered above the brake. The kid was invisible between those two parked cars. When he appeared in front of me I was all set to take the necessary action to avoid disaster.

This explanation may seem a little less Godly, but none the less magical. It is amazing that the mind can perform such life-saving manoeuvres without any conscious thought. I had only had my licence for a few months when this happened so I did not have a lot of practice, which makes this incident even more marvellous.

I still thank my lucky stars that I didn’t hit that kid. I am eternally grateful that a tragedy was averted and I can only make educated guesses as to how it happened. Either way, I think it was still some kind of miracle.