On my walk home this morning, I heard before I saw, a metallic murder machine zipping past what the human driver perceived to be the unstoppable blockage to his/her path and destination. This monstrous obstacle was indeed, the dreaded yellow light. The light that is purgatory, no man’s land, half-sunken titanic. The machine roared so loud that for a second, if I were to have closed my eyes and thought less about my context, I could’ve been at a NASCAR racetrack. However I wasn’t.

The car, perhaps going 70-75 mph on a street parallel to a hospital block right near where I live, zipped past the yellow light successfully to evade the hammer of the law - only to be stopped about 100 feet after the light, at the next stop light.

This got me thinking, that had this person just for five seconds, thought about the implications that the impulsive stomp to the pedal could’ve caused (a minor/elder crossing the street easily injured, an unexpected pothole that could’ve convinced the car’s direction otherwise, or just simply ran into a car that wasn’t seen coming the other way) while merely traveling an extra 100 feet to be stopped again, I think they would’ve acted otherwise. Five extra seconds of thought.

However I think that most of us may be hypocrites to this way of thought. We most often are blinded by speed, of urgency, maybe because this mobile/technology age changed our behavior to think that anything more than five seconds is simply too long. Especially in a city, where the speed of life seems to be amplified, I think this is a tough mindset change.

I do really think though, that to just remind ourselves to take that extra five seconds could actually prove useful tenfold down the road. And I think that as we continue getting faster, we must all think systemically. How will what I am doing now, affect others or myself five minutes, one week, three months, or even a year down the road?

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