A year or so ago I made a pledge not to text and drive. It wasn’t a problem because at that time my texting was limited to my children. Now most of my friends use the text method to get in touch. I, who had protested learning to text, love to hear from my friends.  We keep in touch more often. It might be a line or two or a word throughout the day but it is enough to keep us in the loop.

I get why some people have a problem remembering to not text and drive. That thought was brought home to me yesterday.

I was driving home from another community when I heard the ding go off on my cell phone alerting me that I had a text message. I glanced over to the phone and saw my husband’s name on the id. I started to pick up the phone to read it while I was driving down the freeway. It was a non- thought about gesture. Your phone dings, you pick it up to see who has something to say.

Immediately my pledge and my rantings at my children came to mind. I almost broke my pledge without thinking. It was so easy. I found a place where it was legal to pull over my vehicle. I then picked up my phone to read the message and text back. I could have waited until I reached my destination but I knew for my husband to send me a text it was an important item. He never texts me.

I pulled away and back onto the road. Many thoughts zoomed through my mind. It had been so easy to pick up that phone and ignore the road. It was a reflex action. It was easy to convince myself that I would not be in any danger or put anyone else in any danger by my actions. It wouldn’t distract me enough.

Had I not taken Oprah’s Pledge and remembered it I might have ignored safety for convenience.

Would the outcome of my answering my text message been the same?