Aliens, Kings, and Trucks

    You're driving to visit some friends, and you have time.  You see a truck up ahead: how do you feel about it?  Is it a threat, one that must be passed as quickly as possible.  Is it an annoyance, one that slows you down on your most-important journey?  Or can it be something else? Something entirely different?

Me, Driving Behind a Truck

Can this truck be, in fact, an opportunity?

A good friend of mine, Adam, stumbled upon a whole new approach to trucks: driving behind them!  Yes, trucks give you an opportunity to slow down and enjoy the road.  An opportunity to drive without worrying about who you pass and who passes you.  An opportunity to drive without people cutting you off or driving up your rear in hope to push you forward a little bit faster.  Trucks don't make abrupt stops, either.

I tried this out over the weekend, and I must admit: it's not easy breaking old habits on the road. I tend to fear the trucks, having thoughts about their tires blowing off or random stuff falling out of them and onto my precious little car.  Or thoughts about the truck's doors suddenly opening and little green men in gray overalls jumping out and using some new magical technology to pull my car into their truck and take off to a far away planet in which the primary source of nutrition is aged cheese.  Alas, one can rest assured that these things rarely happen. And yet, it was hard for me to just sit back and enjoy the ride behind the truck.

Not behind a truck

I felt as if I was doing something wrong.  If only I pass that truck, I could get to wherever the heck I was going that much faster!  And if I have a way to get there faster, shouldn't I be?  Isn't time my most precious possession?  How could I just pass up an opportunity to drive just a little bit faster?

Well, my friends, I did just that.  I passed up this "opportunity" to drive faster, and instead, took on the real opportunity: the opportunity to drive behind a truck.  And I have to tell you, my friends, that for the time that I drove behind that truck I was king.  Not some fake king living in the Dark Ages, but a real king: a king of my time, a king of the road!