<VV> Happy Birthday Corvair???? (LONG)

[Bill Hubbell]

Hmmm.  So far, Norm, you are the only person to respond with compassion.

Yes, I know it was stupid of me to run out of gas in an old car, at night, 
on a busy highway.  Believe me, I do know exactly how stupid that was.

But.


The point of the story was that in spite of my stupidity, and against the 
odds, somehow it all came out alright.  For whatever reason, a serious 
accident was avoided.  My life, and probably the lives of others, were 
spared.  A story such as that deserves to be treated with respect, for all 
too often all we hear of is the opposite; the death and destruction that 
results from man's stupidity or inhumanity to his fellow man.

We live in a dangerous world.  Safety and comfort are only an illusion we 
hold onto every day.  Sometimes we get complacent, and that is where the 
illusion can so quickly break down.  One minute everything is going great, 
you are on top of the world; next minute everything changes and your life is 
in jeopardy.

We are surrounded by people; some we know, most we don't.  Some are kind, 
willing to help a stranger; most, unfortunately, don't want to get involved. 
I met both types the past few days.  I am thankful for the strangers who 
helped me, and I am sad for the others who cursed and drove away.

We are all human.  We all have our success stories, and we love to tell them 
to others.  We also have our failures, our mistakes.  We don't like to talk 
about them as much.  Lucky for us, most of our mistakes are minor, and do 
little harm to ourselves or others.  Occasionally we are not so lucky.  If 
we are fortunate enough to survive those serious mistakes, we try to learn 
from them, to prevent from repeating them.  That is the nature of our 
species.  It is sad to think of it, but it seems we mostly really learn only 
from our mistakes - rarely from our successes.  It is also true that we do 
not learn as well from other people's mistakes, perhaps thinking ourselves 
better than they.

We are well reminded of the phrase, "There but for the grace of God go I".


But there was a second point to the story.  It was a Corvair story, after 
all.


It wasn't the Corvair's fault I ran out of gas on the highway; it was my 
fault.  Whoever or whatever gave us (me and the Corvair) a second lease on 
life, we are thankful.  And we mean to enjoy that life, and to live it 
fully.


So that is why I got back in that car the next day (fully loaded with fuel, 
of course!) and drove it!


Enjoy the day, folks!

Bill Hubbell


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Norman C. Witte" <ncwitte at wittelaw.com>
To: "'Bill Hubbell'" <whubbell at umich.edu>; <virtualvairs at corvair.org>
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 9:41 AM
Subject: RE: <VV> Happy Birthday Corvair???? (LONG)


> My goodness!!!!
>
> Bill, I'm just thankful you're ok; the car is a bonus.
>
> I love my old cars, but they just aren't as safe as modern vehicles.  The
> problem is compounded by the facts that there are a lot more cars on the
> road today and that ABS, crumple zones and airbags have made it possible 
> for
> other drivers to be much more aggressive, so the competition has gotten 
> much
> more intense.
>
> Norm
>
>
>
>
> snip
>
>