One for the road

I'm still a member of a Taiwan-related message board, though I rarely check the messages anymore. Tonight I decided to take a look and saw that a foreign English teacher died from injuries sustained in a road accident (it appears that he was driving drunk). The story made me shake my head in frustration and sadness. Drunk driving was a way of life for the ex-pat community I was a part of when I first got to Taiwan, and at first I didn't really question it. Several times I can remember pulling up to my apartment building at 4 or 5am after a heavy night at the bar and chiding myself for driving in such a state. After a couple of years I started relying more and more on cabs and other people seemed to be getting smarter about it with me. Then a friend of ours was brain-damaged in a road accident, driving (aparantly) with no helmet after (apparantly) a huge booze binge. It was amazing that it took this (about three years after I first arrived in Taiwan) to persuade me that it was never worth it to risk my own and others' health for the sake of a couple of dollars cab fare and the hassle of picking up my bike from the bar the next day. I'm a generally cautious person but I know that I'm lucky that I never got into a serious bike accident in Taiwan - I took a lot of stupid risks. It's interesting that I read that story today because only last night I was hanging out with LL - another ex-Taiwaner who has moved back to her hometown of Calgary. Sitting in her apartment, drinking a glass of wine and looking at the mindblowingly amazing painting made by our friend who later got into the brain-damaging accident, we talked about the culture of drink-driving we had existed in. When I think about that guy that just died, or the amazingly talented artist who doesn't make the art he once did, I realise that only fortune separates our fates. I am forever thankful (to my common sense and friends) that I wised up and stopped relying on luck. If any good comes of this fatality, I hope it inspires other people in the community (and beyond if that is possible) not to take those risks. It is simply not worth it.