"Family Matters"
__________________________________________________________
Lesson Learned
By
Ray M. Wong
I was stupid and paid for it. I had just taken my kids to
Chinese School in City Heights on a Sunday morning, and we were headed north on
Fairmount Avenue to get home. Fairmount is a two-lane road, and I was in the
right lane. The sedan in front of me was moving at a pace that indicated the
driver was either daydreaming or lost. A quick glance to the left showed me a
white SUV accelerating past the snail-paced car ahead of me, so I changed lanes
in order to pass the sedan.
After I switched lanes, the SUV suddenly slowed for no
apparent reason because there wasn’t another vehicle in front of it. The SUV
kept pumping its brakes which forced me to slow down as well. I didn’t know if
the SUV felt I was tailgating, but I thought I had maintained safe spacing between
us. We were now moving at such a crawl that the sedan to the right actually
passed us. Another few moments, and it became apparent the SUV wasn’t going to
speed up, so I changed lanes back behind the sedan. As soon as I did, the SUV
accelerated passed the sedan.
That did it. I was pissed. I switched lanes a third time and
sped past the sedan. Then I changed lanes back to the right and kept
accelerating with the goal of getting in front of the SUV. The SUV accelerated
too, and it looked like we were at Daytona. I went faster, and the SUV tried to
keep up for a while, but relented and fell back. A feeling of smug satisfaction
came over me until I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the flashing lights
of a police car.
I pulled over, and the officer asked why I was going so fast.
I could only mumble something about a vehicle cutting me off. The officer told
me I had made a poor decision, and he was right. What was I thinking getting
into a drag race on Fairmount Avenue? My children were in the car, and I
could’ve hurt them in the process of trying to get revenge on a smart alec SUV.
The officer handed me a citation and advised me to slow down.
Then I drove carefully onto the freeway while attempting to answer my
children’s 10,000 questions about why daddy got a speeding ticket.
Family tip: A traffic school instructor conveyed that if
you’re pulled over by a police officer for a moving violation, you can ask for
a warning instead of a ticket, and sometimes the officer will grant this. The
timing is important because you need to ask before the officer starts writing
the ticket.
P.S. I’m going to have a story called “China” appear in an
anthology called “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Mom: 101 Stories of
Gratitude, Love and Good Times.” The book should be out at the end of March,
and I’ll have it for sale on my website www.raywong.info. The book will have a foreword by
Joan Lunden and include 101 stories that pay tribute to mothers. If you’d like
me to personally inscribe a copy to your mom, send me an e-mail at ray@raywong.info and tell me her name and something
about her.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/21539/ (Monopoly 08/09)
