Item: 1 1995 Honda Civic EX (Part II)

I should have mentioned the fact that I only have this car because of a collision which totalled the car I had before.  So besides the girl-automobile bond that comes with being native to California, I feel attached to this Civic because it's part of a whole life philosophy that instructs: Get right back up on the horse that threw you.

I mean really, immediately.  Do it right away, and there's an important moment of triumph.  Ha - I don't care if somebody just crashed into me, I will drive again.  But when you wait, the dread just grows, and the trauma just sits there.  And so in various types of catastrophe, my first thought is that I have to go jump back into it, no matter how much I don't want to.  I'm lucky, I guess, to have always been taught the importance of this.  For example, when I was teaching and totally bombed what I was trying to do, the first thing I did when I got home was start the lesson plan for the next class.

But I would be kidding myself if I said I couldn't give a good long list of instances where this hasn't happened, where I've failed and still haven't gotten myself to go back for more.  A person can't outwit everything by way of psychological tricks like this.  Sooner or later something happens that's too real to be handled that way, and the regular rules must be suspended.  Either that, or I'm not as strong as I like to think I am.