I followed the general rules of being pulled over: I pulled into a parking lot, turned my car off, and frantically started looking for my registration and insurance card.
Now, I have been pulled over and received many tickets throughout my life but never for speeding. My tickets were always for driving with expired tags or running red lights or making illegal U-Turns. Nonetheless, when I get pulled over, I get nervous.
I always begin formulating the excuses in my head prior to that intimidating tap on the window that soon will occur with the cop.
When I was pulled over for speeding, it was no different. I was fumbling through all the papers in my car while trying to think of something believable to say to avoid getting a ticket. I was preparing to manipulate the cop believing with such arrogance that my reason for speeding would be an excuse this cop has never heard before.
It's one thing to formulate such a great excuse and it's another thing to actually execute it while a shadowy, dark figure hovers over your car dressed in a uniform befitted with a gun, a taser, a baton and handcuffs.
Once the cop reached my car window, I was prepared to talk myself out of the speeding ticket.
I failed.
I didn't fail because I didn't have a clever excuse ready for him. I didn't fail because I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown or pissed that this cop singled me out.
I failed because he asked me a rather brilliant question:
"WHAT'S YOUR HURRY?"
I could have easily stated I was running late for work despite the fact I still had close to 2 hours before I needed to be there. I could have stated I didn't realize I was speeding because sports radio had distracted me. I could have said anything.
But the truth is.... there was no reason for me to hurry.
Tonight, I was reading an article about baseball in my local newspaper. The sportswriter used this form of media to explain that baseball needs to come up with some innovative ideas to make the game more interesting.
His reasoning is because today's generation of kids find baseball to be too slow.
And it got me thinking....
When I was a kid, all I did was play baseball. In fact, I entered high school with plans on playing professional baseball.
The idea that today's kids find baseball boring baffles me.
It baffles me until I think about my speeding ticket back in January and that question the evil cop dared to ask me....
WHAT'S YOUR HURRY?
Here we are in the information age and everyone is too busy, too impatient and frankly, too demanding.
There is a reason this is called the Information Age and not the Knowledge Age. We are inundated with information and technology yet we don't apply that information and slow down. We don't allow that information to actually become knowledge.
We live in a society of fast food, fast computers, fast cars, minute rice, texting, cell phones, faxing, IPODS, microwaved foods, TV ads telling us to JUST DO IT, get rich quick schemes and all information is one click away just by visiting Google.
Stop and smell the roses? Hell, we don't even notice the roses.
It's funny because just the other day, I made some homemade cheese crisps. I grated cheese onto a tortilla and stuck it in the microwave for one minute.
By the time, 20 seconds had gone by, I was already tapping my fingers impatiently because apparently, waiting one minute was ruining my day.
WHAT'S MY HURRY?
I actually stood there wondering why the hell waiting one minute for my cheese crisp felt like I was stuck in a traffic jam for hours.
We are a sick people. We are spoiled brats.
We have all this technology and information and we still want more.
Hell, when I was a kid, popcorn was made on the stove. If I needed to make a phone call while driving, I had to find a pay phone at 7/11. The freeways had 2, maybe 3 lanes. Now they have 4 lanes and a special lane for those who carpool. I had 5 channels to choose from on TV. Now, I have over 250 and I still can't stick to one channel.
Life was slower and I don't recall complaining about it.
It's like the more information and technology we are fed, our appetite for more increases.
We don't retain knowledge. We are in constant motion.... Motion without memory or better defined as insanity.
We are insane.
My first 22 years of driving included ZERO speeding tickets. It doesn't mean I wasn't speeding in that period. It means I was never caught.
I was never caught because I would pay attention and make certain cops were nowhere in my vicinity.
I realized the morning I was pulled over for speeding that I simply was too busy and too distracted to even consider that a cop might pull me over.
WHAT'S MY HURRY?
As I told the cop, I have no idea.
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