This slow poke may have just saved both our lives

There I was, driving home at dusk in rush hour traffic, inching along the freeway at a mind numbing 3 miles and hour. I was desperate to get the whining boys home, the crying baby home. So I decided to take the nearest exit and drive another route. One that might not be much faster in the end, but at least I would feel like I was moving. The determined route involved a jaunt across some rail road tracks and then a turn into the woods. Woods thick with trees reaching across the road to form their canopies, making dusk seem black as midnight therein.  

 I glanced at the speed limit - 30mph. I wasn’t in such a hurry that I was willing to go any faster than that on this dark road in these dark woods filled with rousing wildlife. Headlights appeared over the hill behind me, gaining on me fast. They looked like a pair of greedy eyes, ready to plow over anything in their path. I kept glancing at them in the rear view mirror as they were far too close to my tail end for comfort. But I wouldn’t be bullied into speeding up. As I reached the last curve of the winding road I saw a pair of white eyes. Two hundred feet in front of me a doe was bounding across the road. I noticed the headlights behind me slow and thought, “HA! See! I’m no slow poke! I’m smart!”

How’s that for humility?