I had no plans to post today, but I finally got around to going through some emails from last week and watched a video my mom sent me. First I clicked and saw it was, ugh, 10 minutes long. I need to go do the dishes and clean the kitchen before Snooze wakes up. I watched about 40 seconds and knew that I would make the time to spare 10 minutes to finish watching.
Please, make the time. Leave this as an unread email until you can sit for 10 minutes and watch this.
I have posted about not texting and driving in the past, posted X-rays of broken necks and backs, all from one little text. Maybe just one letter, because one second is all it takes. But you know what? On occasion, I still do it. I start responding at a red light and the light turns green and I am just trying to finish the last few words so I can set my phone down and focus on the road again, but in those few seconds, everything can change. A car runs the other red light and hits us. Me and all three of my babies, gone in an instant, because Mommy was still looking down, trying to rush through and press send on a text that just absolutely had to be answered then and couldn't wait until the next red light, could not wait until home, so I didn't see the car and have time to brake. We could all be dead. It could happen. To me. To you.
You could take the life of a mother and three babies because you are looking down and don't realize the light is turning red. Or because you are glancing down just every few seconds, attention not completely on the road.
What is worth losing your life over? Taking someone else's life over?
I can tell you this right now: texting is not worth losing MY life over, and certainly not my children's. It is not worth taking someone else's life over. I am making a pledge right now to myself, my husband, my children, my whole family, my friends and all of you that I am never going to text while driving - while the engine in my car is running - ever again. Not at all. Not at a red light. Never.
If you, too, will make this pledge right now, leave a comment below stating so. Hold yourself to it. One comment or twenty comments or more - lives will be saved. Pass this on to friends and family. We wouldn't drive drunk, so why text?
It's not worth it.
