Speed

A couple of policemen had a job to do.  They were to look for speeders and book them.  They knew this one guy liked to speed down a particular road.  So they set up there.  All day they expected him.  Finally he came speeding up and they puled him over and said “we have been waiting for you all day.”  He told them, “well I got here as quick as I could.”  A friend of mines son overtook a police car – that was involved in a police chase.
The saying “more haste, less speed “comes to mind when I think of these things.  It is amazing how often someone speeds past us and we meet them at the lights up further.  They may be going fast, but never as fast as in the question Steven Wright asks. “If you are in a spaceship that is traveling at the speed of light, and you turn on the headlights, does anything happen?”  He also asked, “What’s the speed of dark.?”
I do not know I like something I recently read. “Just remember, once you’re over the hill, you begin to pick up speed.”  Though as St Jerome put it, “what good is speed if the brain has oozed out on the way.”  Old is not synonymous with wise.  Sometimes old is just old.
I prefer, if I can, to have a think about something for a while.  Some decisions need to be made on the spot, but there are others that are better thought about.  To me often hasty decisions are bad decisions.  Decisiveness does not mean hastiness.  I do like what Cicero said.  “It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment.”
There are those that sometimes imply a decision is needed right away and it is not.  Me being the way I am, I tend to look for time if I have it.  I prefer if I can, to have as much information before me as I can.  I prefer to make an informed decision rather than a decision based more on hope than facts.
In so much of my life I find the advice given to me over 40 years ago stands, and to me it was good advice.  I was told “it is not how close to danger you can go, but how far you can keep from it.”  I was reminded of that again the other day at a T section in the road.  There were cars coming and I thought “I could have made it.”  But I let them go by before proceeding.  To me, that was a case of staying away from danger.  I am not in favour of dilly dallying, but I am also not in favour of taking un-necessary risks.
I guess it is one of the reasons I am big on compliance.  It can be inconvenient, costly and maybe no one will know for years.  But I think if I have done the right thing then I can proceed merrily without any sense of needing to cover up.
Isaac Asimov said he was not a speed reader but a speed understander.  There is a key there for me.  It is no wonder they say slow and steady wins the race.  I find comprehension more important than volume.  The good thing is even if I start out slow, I can build up speed and enjoy both worlds.