cars

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Funeral Processional Etiquette Is Needed

From time to time I will repost an article from years past. This article was originally posted March 2013

funeral processional etiquette is needed

Last weekend I took part in a funeral. It all went very well until it came time for the interment. 

Getting to the cemetery meant a twenty minute drive through the city and in the country.   

Only family and close friends attended, while most others opted not to take the drive … probably a good thing because they never would have made it. 

You see, most people don’t follow other cars very well, driving too far behind the person they’re following. 

It’s like they’ve watched too many TV detective shows. They try to follow so the lead car doesn’t know they’re on their tail. 

I once had a person follow me to a destination they had never been to, yet they kept going slower and slower and falling farther and farther behind. 

At first, I slowed down to make sure they wouldn’t lose me, but then they slowed down even more! Finally, I just decided to drive and let them keep up to me. 

They never made it; they got lost and went home.

In a funeral procession, people really need to drive close to the car they’re following, especially through intersections. 

Personally, I like to get close to the car in front of me so the vehicles traveling in the other direction see that I’m part of a procession and don’t T-bone me when the light changes green for them.

Those other drivers on the road can be a real problem. Most of them act like they have no clue what’s going on. 

They see the hearse, the flashing lights, the long line of cars with little flags on their hoods like it’s a diplomatic motorcade, and they STILL try to jump into line like they want to be part of the parade! 

After all, their shopping trip to the mall has been timed down to the last minute. They didn’t calculate running into a funeral procession. 

There was a time when cars pulled over to the side of the road when they came upon a funeral procession – like we’re supposed to do with emergency vehicles. 

But then again, some people are not good at that either. I’m not sure whether people drive without looking around or whether they just don’t understand the unwritten rules of the road. 

When our procession of cars got out of the city, some cars pulled over to the side of the road, and two ladies who were walking stopped and just stood as the line of funeral cars went by. 

But most cars just kept going and even drove around the cars that had pulled over.  These people were both young and old – I know because I looked at them, trying to stare them down! 

We finally made it to the cemetery, with no accidents, and only missing one car. One with several of the family members in it. 

They arrived late because a car cut into the line and then didn’t go through and intersection with the rest of the procession. 

Going home from the cemetery only took about 10 minutes … there were no funeral processions to stop for.

Here’s the thing: In a funeral procession, you need to keep up and others need to pay attention. If you don’t keep up, other cars don’t know there is anything to pay attention to. In your Christian walk you need to keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). So that others will pay attention and see a difference.

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What do you find difficult about following someone?  Leave your comment below.

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Visually This Shouldn’t Have Happened

The other day I saw something that shouldn’t have been happening.

It could happen, but often it’s an optical illusion … like when you put a fork in a glass of water and it looks like it is bending. 

Years ago I went on a bike hike with a buddy. We were going camping, and our road trip was to take us about five hours, which we stretched into about eight.

Along the way we had some long, uphill climbs to make, but one part of the road looked straight and flat.  

As we started on this long, straight stretch of road, I noticed it was getting easier to pedal. I started to move up the gears and with each gear it got easier to pedal. 

It was a straight road and I was in shock at how we were clipping along. I stopped pedalling because it was a waste of time; we were flying but the road looked flat. 

Obviously, it was an optical illusion … something like the Magnetic Hill and the Reversing Falls in New Brunswick.

I had been to both those places when I was about 7 years old. Both of them are nothing more than optical illusions. They look like something is defying gravity, but in reality it’s not. 

What I experienced the other day was not an optical illusion. 

My wife, Lily, and I were driving through Toronto on the 401. It was late in the afternoon on a Sunday, with many people on the road returning from their cottages at the end of the weekend.

Lil was looking at a driving app that gives you tips on the best route to take.  

And though we were going straight through Toronto, the app said that we should get into the collector lanes at a particular point because they were moving slightly faster.

We were not going too fast in the express lanes so we moved over and noticed that we were actually moving a little faster. 

But that was very short lived. Shortly after we got into the collectors, we were reduced from four lanes down to three because of construction. 

This was followed by another lane reduction a few kilometres later. At this point you could tell we were moving slower than the express lanes that had no reductions.

I was starting to question the app for getting us into the mess we were in, because you know that every time there is a lane reduction, the cars in that lane have to merge into your lane.  

And then after a few more kilometres we got another lane reduction. If you’re counting, we went from four lanes of traffic down to one lane.

And of course, we slowed down during the reduction. 

But then the most amazing thing happened. With high cement barriers on both sides of our lane, we started to pick up speed. We started going faster and faster, and when I looked over to the express lanes, the traffic in all four of those lanes was going slower. 

We were whipping past them at a fast clip. It was no optical illusion. 

With how slow the trip had been up to that point, it was almost a miracle. 

Here’s the thing: Your life can look like it’s going well. From your vantage point and everyone else’s, your life is moving along nicely. But it’s your inner spiritual life that is the unseen determining force of your future. Don’t get lulled by what is visual. Pay attention and get your spiritual life right with God. Your physical life will not defy your spiritual life. 

That’s Life!

Paul

Question: What part of your life looks better on the outside than it is on the inside? Leave your comments below.

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It All Changed in an Instant

They say things can happen in a spilt second.  One moment everything is fine, and the next everything has changed.  That happened to me this week when I put my back out.  I was feeling good, keeping up with my aerobics and weights, and looking forward to playing hockey later in the day.  Then in one moment, aerobics, weights and hockey were all put on hold.

Sometimes things don’t happen quite so fast.  I remember a time shortly after getting my driver’s license, when I was returning home with my brother after a late night hockey practice.  It had lightly snowed while we had been practicing and there was a fresh, thin blanket of snow on the road.  Everything looked so peaceful.

As we left the arena, we turned onto an access road that took us to the main street.  It was a short, two lane strip of road, with no one in sight, and not one tire mark in the snow.  I thought I would show my little brother how to fishtail the car down a street.

We were driving my dad’s ’74 Buick LeSabre, with a 350hp engine, and rear wheel drive.  Looking back, it was a Sherman Tank without the caterpillar tracks!  As I started down the road, I began fishtailing the car back and forth.  Then . . . I gave it a little too much gas, and the car started to fishtail too far.  I panicked and jammed on the brakes with complete inexperience.

The fishtailing stopped but we started sliding, heading straight for a fire hydrant.  It was like slow motion.  There was no way to deviate from the course.  My life flashed before my eyes – not because we would die in the crash – because I knew my dad would kill me when I wrecked his car.  It seemed like an eternity, as we just kept sliding closer to the fire hydrant.

And then a miracle . . . the front tires hit the curb just before the hydrant and the car bounced back.  That was a long time to experience very little change.  I told my brother not to say anything to Dad and that was that.

The other day, however, feeling fine, I bent down to pick up a knife I had dropped.  In a split second I knew the next few days would be uncomfortable.  I got this sharp and stabbing pain in the base of my spine.  It was like that knife had been dropped into my lower back.

Immediately I realized my error.  I had bent with my back and not with my knees.  I’ve heard of people putting their back out by bending over to pick up a sock or something that weighs next to nothing.  I’ve seen Lily put her back out, without picking up anything.  I always thought that was weird.

Now I know what it’s like.  It sounds funny, “I put my back out by picking up a knife”.  But it wasn’t funny to me and it changed my life for the next few days.

Here’s the thing:  Sometimes we can see outcomes unfold from the decisions we make, and sometimes they happen so quickly we can’t anticipate the outcome.  If I am in a regular habit of bringing my decisions to God, and then following His direction, it will cut down on those times I find myself edging towards a big disaster, or suddenly appearing in the midst of trouble.

Until Next Time!

Pastor Paul

Question:  What’s your plan for ensuring your decision-making doesn’t lead to trouble?  Leave your comment below.