Going Too Fast

Had a dream the other day and I could only take it as a warning about how I could end up speeding through life and losing out on several opportunities. I will try my best to narrate the events of this dream to you.

About ten years in the future, I am a very successful executive travelling down a Lekki neighborhood street. I'm going a bit too fast in my sleek, black, 12-cylinder Lexus LX970 SUV, which at the time is only two months old. I'm watching for pedestrians darting out from between parked cars and I slow down whenever I think I see something. No child darts out, but all of a sudden a brick sails out and, WHUMP, it smashes into the Lexus's shiny black side door! SCREECH...!!!! I slam on my brakes! Put the car into reverse, and with my tires spinning madly return the car back to the spot from where the brick had been thrown. I jump out of the car, grab the kid responsible and push him up against a parked car. I shout at the kid, "What was that all about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing?!" Building up a head of steam, I go on and on. "That's my new car, that brick you threw is going to cost your parents a lot of money. Why did you throw it?"

"Please, mister, please...I'm sorry! I didn't know what else to do!" pleads the youngster. "I threw the brick because no one else would stop!"

Tears are dripping down the boy's chin as he points around the parked car. "It's my brother, Mister," he says. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up." Sobbing, the boy asks me, "Would you please help me get him back into his wheelchair? He's hurt and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, try desperately to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in my throat.

Straining, I lift the young man back into the wheelchair and take out my handkerchief and wipe the scrapes and cuts, checking to see that everything is going to be OK. I then watch the younger brother push him down the sidewalk toward their home. It's a long walk back to the sleek, black, shining, 12-cylinder Lexus LX970 -- a long and very slow walk.

I decide never to fix the side door of my car. I keep the dent to remind me not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at me to get my attention.

That brick was small compared to what will be required to stop some of you my dear readers.

Watch out for the bricks of life coming at you.