Do as I say, not as I do?

Because I do not always have the time to write every single day, I had started to draft some posts to keep ready to publish quickly. As I reread this post which I wrote about a week ago, a sense of shame came over me. This past Saturday I drove a group of young people to a meeting. I joked about not following my example as I drank coffee, ate breakfast and showed the guy in the passenger seat my cool tablet PC, all while I was driving on the interstate.

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Let's be careful out there

You are the proud holder of a learner's permit. You're getting in your required hours of real driving with an adult (probably a nervous adult) in the passenger seat. You don't need me to tell you that driving is a big responsibility - you get plenty of that from your parents and teachers.

But as your Aunt I reserve the right to put in my two cents, so here it is.

When I was in high school, my friend Cindy was hit by a car that went out of control while the driver was drag racing. She died a few days later.

When she was 17, First Lady Laura Bush ran a stop sign and caused an accident that killed a classmate.

In 1955, actor James Dean died when the car he was driving - at 85 miles per hour - struck a pickup truck.

I am here today only by the grace of God. Once while I was driving a group of friends to an out-of-town high school football game, I nearly crashed into the median wall while I was looking down to tune the radio. Another time, I dozed off at the wheel with a carload of sleeping friends coming back from a youth meeting. My driving history may be clean on paper, but it is littered with too many moments when my carelessness could have caused a tragedy.

You can get away with a lot of stupid stuff while you are walking or sitting or rollerblading, but one stupid moment behind the wheel of a car and your life or somebody else's could be over or changed forever.

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I'm sorry, kids. In the fun of the moment I made light about something that is deadly serious. Next time I act like an idiot at the wheel of the car, feel free to call me on it.