Life is good even when you get a ticket

You ever feel like life is playing a trick on you, when everything is going your way and then BOOM something crazy happens?

Good Morning and Happy Wednesday!

Monday I was on my way to visit a client, a veteran who doesn't get out much and lives in a very rural part of Georgia.  Whenever I am driving through this area I am very careful for several reasons. The first is because there's a lot of wildlife. The second because the police in the area use tickets to fund the county instead of raising taxes. And candidly I do not want to be part of their tax revenue model.

This particular day I was on the phone with another attorney, just talking about life. I came to a stop sign, looked both ways, and made a right turn onto my client’s street.  I looked in my rearview mirror and saw a police officer behind me with his lights flashing but no siren. We were on a two-lane highway with no shoulder. On both sides of the highway there were deep drops, not unusual in this part of the state. There was no safe place for me to pull over, so I decided to keep going and pull over into my client's driveway since it was just half a mile away. The police officer pulled in behind me. My client came outside to see what was going on, but maintained a respectable distance.

The officer came to my window and asked me if I did not see his lights flashing. I said yes but I didn't know what was going on since he did not have the sirens on. He said it was a signal to pull over. And I told him there was no safe place to pull over and that's why I came here. And he asked again if I did not see his lights and I paused because I really thought he had a deficiency. I looked back at the road and I looked up at him, and saw the realization dawn on his face at just how crazy his question was.

I'm going to pause here with point #1 of this message:

Sometimes we can be so focused on a job that we do not take time to be reasonable in the execution of that job. 

He then stated that I ran the stop sign. I told him I did not. He then said that I slowed down but did not come to a complete stop. I said I did not, that is not like me - I stopped. He then said I was hanging out in the middle of the intersection. And I said I did not.

My second point:

Just because someone says something about you does not make it true. 

At no point do you have to co-sign on it. And you can disagree without being disagreeable (and possibly jeopardize your safety as a person is trying to save face).

The officer made a rude sound and asked for my license. I handed it over, and he went back to his car.  

Now remember I said I was on the phone with another attorney when all of this was happening, and she could hear the entire exchange. When the officer left, my colleague (also a veteran and former MP) asked me, “So which is it? Did you fail to stop or were you hanging out in the intersection? Both statements cannot be true.”

Which leads to the next point: 

People will twist themselves into a pretzel to justify their behavior, but you don't have to twist with them. 

I wasn't good at Twister when I was young, and with these 50-year-old joints, it has not gotten any better!

After the officer ran my details, he returned to my window with a very different demeanor.  

Yep, I'm a lawyer. 

Yep, I'm in good standing with the Bar. 

No, this is not going to go well for you. 

Yep, there is going to be a follow-up to this.

 He returned my license and mumbled something. He asked me if I heard him, but I had not. He cleared his throat and said, “I'm just giving you the citation for failure to stop, nothing more nothing less.”

I took the citation, signed it with my own pen (I declined his), and said sure.

He then asked if this was my destination. I said yes this is my client. The look on his face was illuminating.  And that leads to my next point: 

When you know you've done something, and there is going to be a consequence to that something, the best thing for you to do is to say nothing.

When I went in to my client, he apologized profusely for the way I had been treated. He told me that when he was in the service in Afghanistan, the patrol wasn't as bad as it is in this county. He said that they harass people in the community and leave the meth houses on the street alone.

Let that sink in.

His friend, who also lives in the area and also witnessed the exchange, said that they are the only people on that street trying to do right.

And that leads me to my last point: 

You are a light in every situation, even in darkness. And how you shine matters. 

As annoying as this entire episode was to me, this gentleman lived with this hostility and harassment daily... And yet was still looking out for me, kind to me, and concerned about my feelings.

Good folks, life will not always be easy. But you always have a choice as to how you choose to show up in it.

So let's choose love and light!

Have a great week!

Lynita