Nearly Run Over

 I was nearly run over by a speeding car on my bike yesterday, and right outside my house. I was to the right of my line and signalling to turn right. I heard a car come up behind me and assumed he was going to overtake me from the left. Instead, he came from the right and brushed so close to me that his mirror hit my handlebar and came off. My first reaction, I hate to admit, was fear of confrontation, so I was actually relieved he drove away. The car behind him stopped to make sure I was okay, bless him. After the day, week, month(s) I have had, I didn't need this brush with death or life-changing injury. But the operative word is brush. It could have been MUCH MUCH worse, and I should be thanking my stars. This took me back to an incident from years ago, when my roomie and I narrowly avoided running over a cyclist in India. I am going to quote from that blog post. 

And suddenly I didn’t feel so bad any more. At least no one was dead. As long as there is life there is possibility. Things are never as bad as they are made out to be. As long as there is life you can always retire to fight another day.

And, this is important to remember. As long as there is life, you can always retire to fight another day. Maybe when that incident happened my nerves weren't as frazzled as they are today, but as the blog makes clear, I was far from  happy even then. I took some positive lessons from that incident. What has happened, has happened. Either, you can keep replaying it in your head, or you can draw lessons from it and move on. I am in one piece (although the car isn't. What are the odds that in a collision between a car and a bike, the car comes off worse?). This is not a call to ignore what happened, and try to shut it out of your brain. It is to draw lessons from it, learn from your mistakes or think about what you could have done differently even if you were not at fault. And, move on. Mistakes are meant to learnt from now, not constantly replayed in your head. 

And the more practical moral of the story? Be more careful. I have been feeling quite uppity on my bike lately, feeling superior to car owners stuck in traffic as I whiz past. To be honest, I have been showing off, which is pretty silly, since I am sure the car owners barely notice, and even if they do, I am sure they are more annoyed than impressed. I need to be more careful and less of a show-off. And, never ever turn without looking back to check if there is a car about to run you over, even if you have control of the lane, even if you are signalling.