Monday, March 22, 2010

the race

My eyes beheld a sea of red lights the moment I finally hit the Federal Highway. It was 6.40 in the morning but traffic was like wha-?? I inched into the left-most lane and there in front of me was a silver Naza (Peugeot) Bestari (206) - a horrible local incarnation of an otherwise pretty cute vehicle.

The man/woman behind the wheel of the aforesaid Naza (Peugeot) Bes-whatever drove the vehicle like each day came with 48 hours to spend. Cars were zipping by and he/she was plodding along at what, 50km/h?? 2 seconds behind 'silver slow' were enough for me to decide on a manouevre to the right, and after another 3 seconds, I was free! Yes!! I was in the middle lane and soon I moved on to the farthest right lane. Yes, life in the fast lane is what it's really all about here in KL.

I stole a glance to my left to the Naza on my left. Eat dust. I was slowly pulling ahead of Malaysia's reason for an economic recession. No longer had I passed the span of a car though, the sea of red in front of me started to glow brighter. Not a good sign. Soon I would have to hit the brakes. Surely my gallant overtaking efforts weren't going to waste?

I looked back to the middle lane. Surely I could find a gap somewhere for me to just slide in and avoid imminent deceleration? Negative. I glanced over to Naza in the slow lane. Still going slow. But the path before it looked clear. Could this be potentially somewhat embarrassing? Ugh.

I was stuck. I couldn't move from where I was and eventually I had to join the rest of the glowing red lights in front of me. I watched helplessly as Naza happily trudged along, at 50km/h, soon getting lost in the traffic much further ahead.

Was reminded of two things this morning:

- It is oft-said, "Slow and steady wins the race."

- Unc Dexter once said (and I paraphrase), "The race that we're running is not a 100m dash, but rather a long-distance marathon."




Finish well.

No comments: