Railroad Crossing Essay

I amused myself with my essay so I thought I might Post it. It's nothing grand, and my punctuation's probably terrible, but hey, it's amusing. :)

Come with me for a moment into the realm of imagination: picture a Knight, strong, tall, armor glistening in the sun; our Knight is riding beautiful warhorse, riding to find his princess. Along his path is a terrible beast; Dragon: often Dragon will fly across his land, destroying, eating, and carrying away anything along it’s path. However, at the crossing the Knight plans to take, there is a warning signal that would let him know whether or not the Dragon is coming. The Knight arrives at the crossing, and lo and behold, the Dragon is coming , but instead of staying out of the Dragon’s path the Knight rushes forward to try and beat the Beast at it’s own game. But the Dragon’s to fast, it sees him, rushes forward, attacks! Fearlessly, the Knight draws his sword, and slays the Dragon; now he can finish his quest undisturbed.

Sadly, this is the attitude many have about railroad crossings, and because of this attitude, many have been injured, and killed at railroad crossings, and many loved ones have suffered grief and sorrow for their loss. Trains are not Dragons that can be slain, nor are you the only one at risk when you treat them as such. A better attitude to take is one of precision and care, like a man grilling a steak; this man, you see, pays attention to all of his surroundings, and all of the factors going in to making his steak perfect, - such as the weather around him, the heat of the grill, the size of the steak, how long each one has been on - and he will patiently wait until each is cooked through just enough, but no sooner, and once it’s done, he takes it off quickly so as not to burn is precious steak.

So too with railroad crossings: Patience, precision, and being aware of one’s surroundings. For example, When driving up to a railroad crossing, instead of foolishly charging forward without fear one should slow down and, like the man cooking his steak, observe your surroundings; notice the weather, notice your speed, notice your distance from the train tracks, notice the warning signals. In order to more fully be able to do this, the man must remove all other distractions, because a man, according to Brian Regan, has boxes in his mind, each contains one topic, and he can’t have more than one box open at a time; when driving, although in reality you may be able to have more than one box open at a time, it is a good practice not to; this would entail turning down/off the radio, not texting or talking on a phone while driving, etc. Unlike the Knight, the man cooking his steak is patient, he knows good things come to those who wait, namely a good dinner; when waiting at railroad tracks, even if you can’t see the train coming, or it seems a long way off, don’t rush; take your time. It’s better to eat a well cooked steak than raw meat, just as it is better to be safe, than sorry; unlike the Knight, you can’t slay the train. Don’t try, or you could end up dead meat.