The Lame Game

 There's always that temptation to come down on people like the Hammer of Thor.  Last night Michael Bryant, Ontario's former attorney general, had an altercation with a bicyclist and ended up killing him with his car.  Conflicting reports aside one fact seems to stand out: Bryant could've just driven away or run into a nearby store when the altercation turned nasty.  He didn't.  Instead, he chose to drive along Bloor St. and crush Darcey Allan Sheppard between his car and a mailbox until he was satisfied the man no longer posed a threat.

Although this is an extreme case it's obvious Bryant got frightened, panicked, and eventually angry at the person causing him distress.  Not to absolve the man or anything like that but to recognize that we've all been in his case.  We've seen somebody make a mistake after we just showed them how to do it or got asked a question by somebody in the middle of an important phone call.  We wanted to snap, to clench our fists and scrunch our face and, perhaps, vent.  Sometimes we do and often we regret it but, in every case, we know afterward that if we had another chance we'd do it differently.

Shouting at a lover because of frustration and high-strung emotions, callous thoughts of self-promotion and the hot feeling of road rage are all examples of temptation overcoming sense, of pleasure overcoming virtue.  It's a tricky path we walk and although I don't mean to sermonize I think we can all learn from Michael Bryant.  We can all make these mistakes and only deal with the consequences of hurt feelings or guilt but, as in the case of Michael Bryant, at least we didn't kill anybody.