A Momentary Distraction

I headed out today for a while in order to do a few things at the office and run a few errands for work. One of those errands involved the need to visit a member of the church in a hospital. As the pastor of a church I’m called upon to make my share of visits to various hospitals in our county. The hospital that I visited today is located near my church and as I drove toward the visit I experienced a slowdown in traffic that was the result of an accident up ahead. It turned out to be a motorcycle accident. The road that I was on is the same road on which my accident occurred, roughly a mile away from the exact location.

It looked as though there were no other vehicles involved, and the rider didn’t seem to have serious injuries. He was sitting up on the road while speaking to someone and his bike was upright on its kickstand. It looked to me as though he took a sliding dive on a turn. He was banged up, but he seemed to be “OK” in general. Several people, including a police officer, were there with him so I kept driving past the scene.

I’m not really clear on my thoughts concerning this event today. I’m genuinely relieved and glad that the rider seemed to be alright physically. That is a certainty within my mind. The rest is cloudier for me. My mind was briefly driven to certain points of thought. How did the scene of my accident look in comparison? How did it affect others who drove past? How would the rider’s life be changed by experiencing an accident on his motorcycle today, if at all? I don’t know…part of me just saw it as an accident on the road. Was it supposed to be a bigger deal in my mind? I’m writing about it now, but I’ve driven past so many accidents in my life that I know tomorrow will have me thinking of a hundred other things beyond today’s events. Should I ponder this event in a more pensive manner?

I really don’t know. Maybe it’s just a simple matter of temporary distraction.