In 1989 the SF Bay Area suffered a great earthquake. Katie and I were living there at the time. Growing up there, I had experienced many, many earthquakes – this was the first earthquake where I was truly frightened. After the earthquake I heard many stories about different people’s experiences. One experience that always stuck with me was the experience of a friend who was a frozen food delivery truck driver. Todd was on the Bay Bridge when the quake occurred, as many of you know, it can be difficult to feel the full effects of an earthquake while driving. As he was driving, up ahead on the bridge he saw about a dozen people on the bridge running toward traffic waving their hands wildly and shouting. Todd didn’t stop immediately, but slowed down, turned off his radio and rolled down his window to hear what these kooks were saying. They were shouting: Stop. The bridge is out. Stop. There is a big hole in the bridge. Todd stopped. A well dressed man driving a gold sedan wove around his truck, around several stopped vehicles, and skirted passed the people shouting warnings and drove ahead. Everyone was getting out of their cars. Todd got out of his truck and walked a short distance on the bridge to the point where a portion of the bridge was indeed missing. It was an amazing sight, this fifty foot hole in the bridge. As he was standing on the edge of this precipice marveling at the fact that there was this gapping hole in the bridge when it hit him, of all the cars he walked passed, the gold sedan wasn’t there among them. He became obsessed with finding this gold car, searching among the scattered cars between the hole and his truck. There was not a single gold car to be found.
Stop what you are doing. Don’t worry about giving an explanation, drop the excuses, turn around, head in the other direction.