Running on Empty

 

When the needle points to empty, I can still travel several miles before the gas tank is actually dry and the car stops.

The number of miles that can be traveled varies from car to car.  It is not a set amount.  Auto manufacturers did not get together and agree upon this number.  It is simply random.

Some cars have a voice that announces when you are just about out of gas, others maybe a simple blinking light, while most have nothing at all.  They expect you to pay attention to that needle.

There is something inside of us that tends to test the limits of this distance.  The amount of our daring depends upon our age and life experience.  The younger we are, the more we push the envelope, just as the number of times we’ve had to get out and walk influences us a great deal.

This is not a story about gasoline, but about fate, about the mystery of what’s around that next corner and about our luck.  Adding groceries to our shopping cart while mentally trying to remember how much cash we have in our pocket.  What will happen at the register?

These are the little games we play as adults.  As children it was hide and seek. Now it’s become ride or get out and walk.  We tend to grin at seeing someone else walking along the side of the road, carrying a gas can.  They guessed wrong.  They pushed their luck too far past that little needle.  Suddenly we’re feeling just a little smug.