NPR - Random chance

Life is random chance. Huh? It's been my philosophy that we born with what we have and we can only make the best of what we're given and the opportunities life presents to us. After that, it's simply random chance how things go. Some events may be the result of synchronicity where small things fall into place and we get lucky. Some events may be from hard work, or so we think, but without some luck and chance, it wouldn't happen.

And this include life itself, and the opposite, death. Why? Well, there as an article in Sunday's (5/13/2007) Tacoma News Tribune about a truck that lost two wheels off one axle. The set of tires, travelling 60 mph, bounced over the median on Interstate 5 south of Seattle and into a van going the other way. The tires went through the the windshield killing the passenger instantly and serious injuring two other passengers in the van.

I remember a similar incident living in Phoenix where a tractor trailor lost a rear tire. It first bounced over the median, then bounced several times in the other lanes of rush hour traffic, finally striking a VW bug in the middle lane, killing the driver instantly. Another instance occurred recently here on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge where a gasoline tanker truck tried to stop to avoid hitting some cars stopped for traffic. To avoid hitting a lane of cars ahead of the truck, it veered into the oncoming lanes.

Unfortunately while driving against traffic it ran over a small Chevrolet sedan with all its left side tires down the center of the car, literally squashing it flat, which caused the tanker to flip over on its side into other oncoming cars. Fortunately it didn't catch fire. They said the driver of the sedan was completely squashed into the car itself. The tallest part was the tires (I was a minute behind caught in the traffic jam waiting). What do you say to the family of the driver of the sedan?

The last example was from Scottsdale. A young couple was coming home from one of their parents home late one Saturday. They were engaged to be married in about a month when both graduated from college. They were driving home, he was following her about a few hundred feet in his car to ensure she got home safely. On a stretch of wide, divided four lane avenue two other cars from the other direction were racing, a Chevy Corvette and a car they never found.

While coming out of a wide corner at over 100 mph the Corvette hit a rise and got airborne. It jumped the median and slammed head-on into the young woman's car. It pushed it backwards across the road, up a bank, through a cinderblock fence, into a backyard. All right in front of the young man. The other car sped away. Her small compact car was crushed into about a quarter of its length.

With all the deaths in the world, why these as example? They just reside in the corner of my memory to remind when I'm driving. You don't know about all the vehicles and drivers around you. Every time I get home from a trip I thank God I got home, and long trips, I thank "Spirit", my van, for getting me home without breaking on the way (has quit 3 times in 16 years).

So, life isn't just what you think, it's the luck of the draw to get through it doing what you want to do.