“All sorrows can be borne if you put them in a story or tell a story about them.”–Isak Dinesen
STatistic Tell a Story 📊
It was 2016, and my husband, John, texted me photos of a previously owned car he discovered for sale on a local lot. The former owner rarely drove the car, and it was in pristine condition. However, it was white, a color that seemed bland to me. However, the price was right, and after a few test drives and conversations, we decided to buy it.
Turns out, it was a vehicle often used by police officers, a 2013 Ford Taurus SHO, a model no longer made. However, if you’re a car enthusiast, you will know the car. It was only through driving the SHO and encountering car aficionados, that I began to appreciate what a following the car has due to its powerful and uniquely designed engine.
In addition to the car’s engine, another advantage of the SHO, John explained, was its color. According to Autolist’s “Guide to Safest Cars,” AAA, and numerous large law firms, white is the safest car color. Statistics indicate white vehicles are 12-percent less likely to be in an accident because the color is such a contrast to its colorful surroundings.. Hmm. . . in the words of a former British politician,“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
“Oh well, bears will be bears.”–Michael Bond 🧸
Case in point, 2021. I took our cat to a local veterinarian for her annual check up. I parked away from other cars, farthest from the door. Moments later, I was inside an interior exam room with the cat when the door popped open. “Do you own a white Ford SHO?”
Turns out, another client, driving a full size SUV with a camper hitch, somehow managed to back into my car, despite my parking precautions. The entire trunk area of the SHO was wrecked, seriously damaged by the hitch and size of her vehicle. Did my white car, parked as far away from the entrance as possible, really safely stand out?
Now consider 2023 . . .
“The best way of being kind to bears is not to be very close to them.”–Margaret Atwood
I was driving on a winding country state route on my way to a local gym around 4:45 on a cold February morning. THWACK! A large buck, spooked–perhaps by my car–darted out from the woods onto the road behind me and collided into the driver-side rear bumper. If my car was such a contrast, why did Mr. Bambi decide to leap towards it?
This time it took months before the SHO was fully repaired due to an incredibly bad experience with a well-known, car repair shop. Once we finally did get it back, a little over a week later, we were rear-ended in Charleston, WV by a person without insurance who transparently reported, “I don’t know if I fell asleep, or I zoned out when I hit you.” Back to the original, much more reliable, local body repair shop. who made the repairs after the veterinarian parking lot debacle.
“Bears are masters of survival.”–Catherine Lukas
All was right in the world once more. Our car was repaired in a timely fashion, but we decided to search for a new vehicle–an HEV model similar to one we owned many years ago. A few days before Thanksgiving 2023, we went to a local dealership, where I met a young, respectful sales associate named Austen, and I completed a test drive of a vehicle similar to the HEV model John and I researched. After some back and forth, I sat down with Mr. Austen to order a 2024 “Dawning Red ” compact SUV that was an HEV with ALL of the top-of-the-line, high-tech safety features. After my experiences with a white vehicle, I determined I might as well get a color I love AND be able to defend from would-be “assassins.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t slated to arrive until January or February 2024.
Mid-December, 2023, John and I left Snowshoe Mountain Resort where we attended a wedding. We were driving along WV-39 when we entered the scenic Monongahela National Forest. We were listening to music and chatting, when suddenly, John and I both screamed, “BEAR!”
A large black bear had “barreled” out from the woods and was running across the road in front of us. John braked hard, but there was no avoiding it. In a split instance, I quickly did a survey of our circumstances. We were in the middle of nowhere with little to no cell phone service, night was falling quickly, and there was no traffic on the road. We were doomed.
THWACK! That sickening sound of impact, and perhaps, impending demise as we both exhaled, bracing ourselves for the worst. However, by a Source greater than us, we were still driving. In the rearview mirror, the bear was seen shaking its head and ambling back towards the side of the road from which it had originally darted.
In a note of irony, and almost “unbearable” humor, the Maps App’s image revealed we were driving on “Bear Run Rd.” It was at this point, John and I burst out laughing. Our cachinnation continued momentarily as tension slowly diffused into gratitude. We were safe. The car was still functioning with minor damage to the front, driver-side bumper, and the black bear appeared to be alive.
I once more contacted the local body repair shop regarding my damaged white vehicle. However, before I could get it to the shop, Austen, the young sales associate, reached out to me. The newly ordered vehicle, with all those safety features, had arrived early at the local dealership. I could “bear-ly” contain my joy as Austen explained the new vehicle would have sensed the bear and automatically braked before we could have reacted!
Stories can bring sense, structure, and sometimes, humor, to a world that I often struggle to fully understand. Disjointed events rise in an arc of plot developments and somehow come full circle in the resolution of the narrative. I have been fortunate to share these stories with you. By writing, I hope I am contributing to the understanding of our shared humanity as well as your own unique life story. It is my hope to continue to share the untold stories yet to come as, together, we move into a new year.
For those of you who take time out of your busy schedule to send emails, cards, letters, and messages to me, please know that I am sincerely appreciative for your kind words, generous spirit, thoughtful advice, and even corrections when I am wrong. A writer needs a reader just as a cook needs someone to feed. Thank you for being that reader for me. You are why I write. May the new year be gracious to you and yours; may it be filled with peace and, of course, stories!
P.S. Thank you Austen, Mark, Jacob, Gavin, Marvin, and all the other friendly guys at the local dealership. You made our purchase feel like the beginning of the next adventurous chapter in our life story . . .
Steph Simply 