It’s a house like any other rural Ohio house.
I went back there today, about half an hour away from it being a perfect year since the crash. I walked the shoulder and stood between the telephone poles and evaluated the road. It was informative. I understood more about how things happened the way they did. Then I drove back to the freeway, and as I did, I realized something: that was the last curve in the road. Had I made it through that curve, I’d have been home free. And as I stood under the clear sky on the dry road, my first thought was of that scene in Rabbit, Run where the protagonist reaches down and pulls the plug in the bathtub that drowned his daughter. He thinks that “in all His strength, He did nothing to lift it” or something similar.
Yet in my case, He did pull the plug. He permitted a car to strike me at full speed, yes, and he changed my life and the life of my passenger forever, but when I took my son out of the back seat through the shattered window I saw that he was literally haloed by broken glass, not a scratch on him, unharmed in the midst of the glass and twisted metal and splattered blood.
It would have been nice to have had today’s clear road one year ago. But it could have been worse.
I’m pleased to note that my brother has set perhaps an all-time high for reader involvement with a Sunday Story. You can read The Genesis Of Something New at TTAC today, and I recommend you give it a shot.
Glad you and your Son made it through O.K. in the end Jack .
Sorry she bailed but that’s life .
-Nate
Glad everyone has recovered and that your son was unscathed. Sometimes it takes these terrible experiences to put things in perspective.
A few years back I was driving a full size pickup on I-94 in Wisconsin and, out of the blue, ended up in a band of heavy snow. Things had been clear before this so there was no salt on the road and it quickly iced over. Before I even had a chance to slow down the rear end kicked out and I was spinning across both lanes at around 60 mph, eventually going off the right side of the road. Somehow, miraculously, I slid into the ditch nearly parallel to the road and there was a steep hill that stopped the truck from rolling over. It went up on two wheels, hit the embankment, and slammed back down. Besides a dislocated finger on one of my passengers, we all made it through without injury. The truck was totaled. I drive by that spot once a month or so and it always strikes me just how lucky we were. A few hundred yards down the road where there was no hill, more traffic behind me, or a different angle going into the ditch and I’m sure it would have been a much different outcome. Most of all, I’m thankful my son wasn’t yet born. I can’t imagine going through a serious accident with him in the car. Like you said… things could have been much worse.
Glad you made it through.
Had I given up on someone 8 years earlier, or not accepted an invitation in the fall of 2012, or declined to host a down on their luck family in the Spring of 2013, I would not be caring for a wonderful lady and her children today while simultaneously attempting to grow a business and looking for a larger place to reside. Life would have been a hell of a lot simpler and I could have spent more money on myself and my pursuits, but sometimes a series of events presents you with - not really a choice - but an entirely unexpected path to take.
I have no idea why the arbiter chose that day to alter your life, just as I could not foresee that July morning when I decided to become the father her kids never had, but humans have amazing adaptation skills embedded deep within themselves. You’ll be alright.
Bark’s story was engaging. too bad about the sexist troglodytes of the “Best & Brightest” in the comments.
Part of the trouble, I think, is that April wants to make that thread a discussion about “transphobia”.
My concern with the idea of “transphobia” is a progressive one, kinda: I worry that when people who were born men decide that they are entitled to speak for women because they’ve changed their bodies, it opens the door to basically deconstruct every single idea of privilege and preference.
Put it this way: if Marshall Mathers really thought he was born black, and he had his skin dyed to match his self-image, would you let him lecture people on black issues?
I think April was looking for a fight and she just happened to latch onto this post.
Obviously, TTAC needs to be respectful of all race and gender issues — which is why Derek decided to ban petezeiss — but we can’t police things as tightly as they do at DailyKos (or, hell, HERE) because it’s a different audience from DailyKos.
Petezeiss was banned? Hallelujah.
April is the main reason I rarely go to TTAC anymore.
April is predictably trite and cliched. Petezeiss is annoying.
Jack once used the term “idiot disclaimer” to describe putting something into what we write just in anticipation of some dolt who says, “but what about…?”. What about all the stuff we leave out because it’s not worth getting bashed over?
I think it’s interesting that the same readers that are quick to drop racism or sexism or other ism card have never even commented on posts that I’ve written about pioneering women and blacks.
As for transphobia, my old shrink, no right wing conservative, was pretty convinced that most “transsexuals” were either homosexuals or people with a bad case of body dysmorphic syndrome.
When you see ads on Craigslist for pre-op female-to-male transsexuals looking to have PIV sex with men, you just have to shake your head at how confusing it can all be. Should a FTM transsexual who has sex with men identify as a gay male?
As for Jack’s comment about MTF transsexuals speaking for women, I welcome the circular firing squad on the cultural left as they fight over just who is and who isn’t empowered to speak truth to power.
FWIW, some feminst writers in the 1970s were already taking exception to the gay rights movement, or at least the male component of it.
Some interesting stuff that I’ve read has been the product of self-identified gays and lesbians who don’t buy into the leftist cultural and political narrative, like Camille Paglia and Milo Yiannopoulas
Man, 1 year ago….I remember hearing the news. Really glad everyone is doing OK
It saved you from having to race my Miata at Barber, which blew up anyway.
Jack,
I am huge fan and am glad to see that a year later you have recovered and are still putting out awesome content. Thanks for continuing to write and share your reviews and observations which are some of the best on the interwebs in any field. Keep on keeping on.
Richard
Thank you sir!
If I’ve ever had an honest thought it was, “God, protect my baby. I hope I don’t get killed. This is going to hurt,” just before falling about 35 feet down a steep hillside with my then 10 year old daughter. Hearing your child cry can be a beautiful sound.
In 35 years of driving, nearly all of my many crashes have been my fault.
Somehow I rationalize that my superior driving skills have been trumped by poor judgment, carelessness, or exhaustion in each instance, possibly because they’ve all happened in good weather. But maybe I’m just not a good driver.
I remember the dates of the standouts: 3/8/80, 6/20/80 (not a crash, exactly), 7/10/82, 2/6/93, and 11/25/14 (yes, just 6 weeks ago). So I have regular anniversaries year-round to reflect on what I’ve lost and what harm I’ve done, but also on the many opportunities I have to live life and teach my kids to make better choices than I have.
Jack - I’m so glad you’re still here for your son and family, and for us also. Keep up the great work.
Still glad you guys were able to *make* it. I remember the little piece of advise you gave about cars every time.
I’ve been driving for 30 years, never an accident.
Mostly lucky I assume. I’d like to think skill is a small part of it. Not racing or car handling skill, but having a sense of when another driver is getting impatient and going to make a lane change right into you, or when a merger isnt very skilled, and will cause a series of brake lights.
I think living where it never snows also helps!
I cannot say for sur, of course, but a year ago today you might have thought that accident was a terrible, terrible thing that you wished had never happened. Today, you might feel something entirely different about it. And five, or 10, or more, years from now you might feel something entirely different from what you might feel today.
Everything happens for a reason, and we cannot label them good or bad. They just are.
I am glad to hear you are well Jack. That was a terrible wreck, and seeing the pictures of that Lincoln were shocking. As a Town Car owner myself, I was maybe a little more disturbed by the whole sequence of events than folks with an Impala or Civic or Taurus.
I have been in annoying fender-benders that resulted in fun with insurance companies, but so far nothing resulting in injuries to either party, thank God. All the best to you.