Where Did I Go Wrong?

Not far from my home are the Amtrak train tracks that run parallel to the Pacific Ocean. Every day the Coaster runs along those tracks. I have crossed those tracks many times on my way to school or work. I know the train must be coming, but I can't see it. The bars go down and the red lights flash, stopping traffic. I hear the whistle before I see the train. Then I see the light. I see the train. The powerful train whizzes by.

When I was a travel agent, some of my clients who were fearful flyers would choose to travel by train, thinking it was the safer option. It isn't. Statistically, train wrecks happen much more frequently than plane wrecks.

What would it be like to be sitting there in my car, and actually witness a train wreck? That has never happened to me, but this afternoon I had a sense of what it might be like. Someone I love with all my heart has a life that is turning into a train wreck, injuring not just him but many others. And I can do nothing to stop it. If I could, I would. I'm just that willing. I would do anything.

Yet I can't. So I sit by the tracks. The bar is down. The red lights flash. I hear the whistle. The train is coming. I can do nothing to stop it, and I cannot turn away.

Susan

"How to Save a Life," written by Isaac Slade and Joe King