Samir Shukla
By Samir Shukla
So many near misses aggregated over a lifetime. Every day, while driving, how many times have you had a near miss bout with a potential accident, even on a short drive on a friendly road in your own town? These types of “whoa, I almost got into a nasty crash” moments happen hundreds of thousands of times around the country, and likely millions of times around the world, on a daily basis. Sadly, a percentage of these near misses become actual hits and the result is something between a minor fender bender to a horrible fatality.
Sometimes it is your own distracted driving, or someone is trying to get somewhere in a hurry, and there are those who are fatigued or nod off at the wheel.
The real devils are the speedster jerks zig zagging through traffic for no reason at all. These idiots are the bane of safe motor travel.
There are also the near misses you are unaware of, as someone else may have missed hitting or swiping you.
Some of these are due to blind spots. You click your turn signal, look through the side mirror, maybe even swivel your neck back and forth quickly to get a better view, but still may just miss hitting or swiping another car due to a blind spot. A loud horn accompanied by an angry, raised arm usually gets you back in your lane.
You catch your breath, resolve to drive safer, and then it’s off to further navigating the madness on our roads.
Blind spots also lurk in almost all human endeavors, our everyday actions and behaviors, conversations, political ideologies, encounters, relationships, and in the most human thing of all, our emotions.
Our missteps and foibles, achievements and setbacks, joys and despair, can come from the benefit of clarity and preparation or clashes due to our own blind spots. Some people are also unwilling or fail to see what is directly in front of them. How are they going to spot the blind spots?
Belief systems are tightly held frameworks and foundations for most people, and they are littered with blind spots, leading to self-delusions, untruths, stubbornness, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation. The inability to change one’s mind or thinking or evolve emotionally because they are not willing to admit their own blind spots have ruined relations, started wars.
Among the work we do for our betterment and society’s just and equitable evolution is the need to be vigilant for our own blind spots, lest they trip you up and cause that near miss into a crash.
Samir Shukla is the Editor of Saathee Magazine.
Contact: samir@saathee.com
Twitter/X: @ShuklaWrites
Newsletter: ShuklaWrites.Substack.com
