My Experience on the Tappen Zee
Today, I was driving along on the Tappen Zee minding my own business. The wind was insane; I could literally feel it trying to pull my poor little car off course. Then, between Sean Hannity's rantings about Obama's socialist Stimulus Package and mulling over the fact that my latest paper was chewed up and spat back by the only professor who forces me to produce what I'm capable of, a piece of metal came out flying out of a truck directly in front of me. It was relatively big and looked like it was a machine part of some kind.
There was no way for me to avoid it at fifty miles an hour. My mind was full of panicked white noise as my car hit the thing and I knew one of my tires was flat. Very, very flat. I didn't try to keep going since I didn't want to damage the axle. So I pulled over and put my blinkers on. In middle of the Tappen Zee bridge. At 4:30pm. It wasn't quite rushhour but no one was happy. Some people honked their horns, as if I had this experience planned on my schedule right between school and making dinner.
So I got my head together, pulled out my cellphone and AAA card and called the number. They were kind enough to transfer me to the bridge patrol people, who got there within ten minutes. My spare was on soon after that and I was back on the road. After a one hour excursion to get the tire replaced, the whole ordeal was over. I was a little rattled and slightly poorer, but no worse for the wear. I actually got pretty lucky considering. If I had been a tiny bit closer to the truck that big metal thing would have smashed right through my windshield at top speed.
But it didn't. I'm alive and well. And that's always a plus.
posted by brianna @ 8:31 PM
8 Comments:
Youre SUCH an atheist that you cant even say Boruch HaShem? :)
Interesting perspective. I guess that means I really am an athiest (although I don't like the term since it makes me think of militant athiests). People who do believe deep down start praying when things get tough. I didn't even think of it.
y'know, the saddest thing about people like you leaving yiddishkeit (and the thing that makes me feel the most frustrated) is that really, if you'd stop and evaluate jewish sources on your own, people like you would be most useful in ripping down the problems in the [frum] jewish world today.
and i kinda feel abandoned to do it on my own actualy, although I think i've spoken about this with you before.
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I have done the requisite study and came to my own conclusions. I also felt somewhat isolated during my journey since it didn't seem like anyone really cared whether they were right or not. To them, Judaism was a lifestyle as much as a belief system. And while most believed in God and the validity of the Torah, that belief was not very complex or thought out. It just was a given. They enjoy the lifestyle and they believe. The lifestyle was a source of misery for me, and when I got down to the nitty gritty philosophy stuff, I realized that the arguments didn't do much for me. This is about reason for me, but I have to say that I do shake my head every time I hear about the bais din screwing over a female friend in the process of a divorce or yet another casualty of the humiliating, de-humanizing shidduch process. Don't think you can fix the system. Take it or leave it.
brianna, unless i'm much mistaken, i think i hear a tinge of sadness in your voice, and over more than just the issue with your friend. (probably the thing that annoys me most.)
chana, change can happen, look at what chassidim did to judaism, look at what the shulchan aruch did.
both of those represented radical changes to the structure of judaism, and the former came from people who were an underclass. change CAN happen, but usualy it happens kicking and screaming... (sadly)
i still refuse to give up hope on the system that became the first to gurantee women's rights in a world where women could be killed at their husband's discretion. (this was the case until maybe the 1400s in europe, possibly after that. the church forbade it but local judges didn't care.)
Women were guranteed the right to sue their husband's for damages, divorce, the right to sustanence, the right to a life free from physical and verbal abuse, rights to personal safety and all kids of stuff.
i don't think that i can give up on a system with that kind of history.
i'd rather die trying, and if I die, i just have to hope that someone will replace me, and someone will replace him if he goes.
but i can't give up, i can't give up on those who are trapped under leaders who are more interested in pushing their agenda than what torah says. . .
eep, brianna, sorry about that.
my kalla happens to be on my brain at the moment, lol.
Oy, vey, you called Brianna by the wrong name....
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