A single moment can have tremendous impacts. Gil Ladetzky tells us why this has shaped his way of life.
A truck driver steers with one hand out the window, with his radio blaring. A motorcyclist weaves in and out of traffic. A girl blasts Katy Perry, singing, and a mom drives slowly screaming on her phone, holding up the traffic on the way to school. Me? I’m ten and two. Ten and two might make me look like a novice, but to me, it’s more than just how I hold the wheel. Ten and two is about being present for the duration of the drive. Checking the mirrors, looking through the rearview, swiveling my head to really look down both sides of the intersection, making sure I’m clear of any cars by my side.
These moments, innocuous as individuals, add up and can mean the difference between life and death. Believe me. In July 2011, a distracted driver hit my cousins head on while writing a text message, killing my aunt and uncle, and leaving two of my cousins paralyzed from the waist down while the third, the youngest, broke almost every bone on the right side of her body. The car was flipped upside down and completely destroyed, pieces were all over the road, hundreds of feet apart. Turns out, the driver wasn’t a bad guy. He wasn’t drunk. He was a dad, a husband who got too comfortable with the time he spent on the road. If the driver had his hands at ten and two, he wouldn’t have been holding his phone and my family wouldn’t have been forever changed.
Ten and two has transformed into an outlook, a process of thinking, a way of life for me. It exemplifies the power of a good routine. Doing the painful stretches before each workout to prevent injury, studying early for tests to help pass the class. These details add up. So while the truck driver drives with his music turned all the way up, and the girl drives while singing at the top of her lungs, I stay relaxed, wholly invested in the moment, with the music turned down just enough, and the windows slightly cracked so I can still feel the breeze. I stay at ten and two while I drive, so I can see what tomorrow brings.
With a Perspective, I’m Gil Ladetzky.