There were a lot of trucks on the road as usual – always in a hurry, always getting in everyone’s way. One came barreling up behind me while I was passing someone. He just couldn’t wait. He almost gave me a push. I got back in the right lane when I could, but I took my sweet time to make him wait. He just about ran me off the road flying past. I decided to show him who was boss. I sped up and pulled back in the left lane. It would take a minute to get up enough speed, but I’d crawl up on his butt and see how he liked it till I could fly past him.

That decision was the worst one I ever made. We almost made it. But fast-moving trucks displace a lot of air and leave a vacuum in their wake. At the speed I was going, the Blazer never had a chance. The Hi-Lo began to sway back and forth, gently at first, then more violently. The Blazer started to fishtail. The Hi-Lo danced until it flipped. The Blazer, still attached, went with it. Spinning around, it rolled over, again and again – off the road and into the grass. Rubber and glass and metal bounced and scraped and cracked. The world turned upside down. Finally, it stood still.

The scene was surreal. At some point the camper came off the car. There wasn’t much left of it – just a field of debris. The car was wrecked. Mike and I were still breathing. We were speaking. Dazed and confused, unsure of what had happened, we were unharmed when we should have been dead. When a cop stopped to see what had happened, it never occurred to us to say that Mike had been driving. Mike had quit drinking eight years before. It never occurred to us that my blood alcohol content might be over the legal limit but the cop was suspicious. It never occurred to me that Mike and I might both be arrested and put in handcuffs in the back of a patrol car. Not what I was expecting, but this is what happened. Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.

Sooner or later bad habits catch up with you. I was charged with driving under the influence – just barely – but enough to make my life miserable for a couple of years. I can’t say it was the first time I’d ever been guilty of this, but I can say it was the last. Worse than the disgrace of being handcuffed was the shock of being put behind bars in a holding cell for half an hour. The only saving grace in this bizarre succession of events was having enough cash in our possession – nearly a thousand dollars – to bail ourselves out.

There has never been a time in my life when I felt worse about myself than this. I could have killed my best friend as well as myself. I destroyed his car and his camper. I ruined our vacation. He was paying the price for my poor judgment. The possibility that I could be sent to prison for a year – highly unlikely as that was – terrified me. My driver’s license had been confiscated. Mike stood by me through it all. I don’t know what I would have done without him.

The next morning Mike and I picked up the pieces of what would have been our vacation at the salvage yard where his car and camper had been towed. We also returned to the scene of the accident to look for his video camera. Adding insult to injury, it was nowhere to be found. We rented a vehicle for the long ride home. We were grateful to be alive. I was already beginning to see the light. I knew things had to change. This was my wake-up call. I’d had my last drink. It was high time.

A very high percentage of cases involving driving under the influence result in conviction. Mine was no exception. The charge against Mike – bogus to begin with – was dropped as part of the deal. For a year the legal ordeal dragged on. It cost me a small fortune. Then Florida suspended my license for a year, though I was allowed to drive for ‘business purposes.’ I interpreted that to mean everything but joyriding, but I always wore a clergy shirt in the car in case I was stopped. I was able to get insurance but it didn’t come cheap. My second biggest fear was being recognized by someone at DUI school, but I wasn’t. I told people I was in an accident. No one knew more than that.

In retrospect, excessive speed, the laws of physics, and drinking all played a part in the crash. But my bad attitude played the biggest part of all. Alcohol had been fueling that for a long time. I just hadn’t seen it. My grandiosity and aggressiveness behind the wheel – and elsewhere in life – were the result. My relationships had been suffering for a long time. I sensed something was wrong but I didn’t know what. I was never a falling down drunk, so I didn’t have a problem. I was in denial – not intentionally – I just didn’t get it. I underestimated the powerful and baffling effect alcohol was gaining in my life. I didn’t recognize the increasing impairment of my thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting. A few other people – like Mike – did, but until I was ready, that didn’t do me any good. Finally I was. The appointed time had come. Like Paul, God finally got my attention. The scales were beginning to fall from my eyes.