With Great Power Comes...

On a certain day during the school holidays a few weeks ago, I was supposed to drive to school, but for some reason (maybe I was dreaming or something), I turned instead onto the highway and headed for teacher's college. (I do really like that place.) I only realised my 'mistake' only after reaching the expressway's exit ramp. But, on the highways of life, there're no mistakes, only possibilities. (!) I accomplished something on the highway that I'll remember for the rest of my fast life.

It was a glorious, sunny day; not many cars were on the highway. I could see the bright red flattop of a Ferrari some distance ahead of me. I had always wanted to get close to one since I first experienced the loud exhaust sound of these red cars one day on another part of the island. It was quite fantastic, their two jet engines made such a ruckus that I could feel my steering wheel tremble. Anyway, back to today's Ferrari, I sensed that something was wrong with her. She was taking the right-most lane, and in right-hand-drive areas like Singapore, this meant that she was supposed to be going quite fast. (Of course, she should be going quite fast in whatever lane she was at!) But no, the strange thing was that it seemed to me that she was going quite slowly. Another car was behind and overtook her. Bizarre...

Naturally, I decided to see how fast she was going by adjusting my speed to match hers. My odometer showed around 90km/k. 90?! That's the official speed limit; and this driver's observance of the the speed limit where the road ahead was empty for the next kilometre was just not right. I decided to do the unthinkable; I would overtake her as well!! So I came up from behind and sort of 'tailgated' her just to see if she would increase speed. She didn't. She was road hogging!

I took my chance, took the adjacent lane, drove up alongside and maintained my speed. Was an old man behind this Ferrari? No, the driver looked like JingChengWu, athletic, young-movie star! He seemed to be enjoying the ride, there was no rush at all. Everything's cool. I accelerated and overtook her (the feeling was tremendous!), but I then realised there's something rather intriguing about this whole thing.

The Ferrari could overtake any car, but this one was going rather slowly and hogging the road. The only reason why I thought there's something wrong was because I tend to equate fast with 'right', as least for a car designed to go pretty fast. But here was something that transcended this 'value system'. The driver was going at the speed he wanted, and that's probably all that mattered to him; he didn't have to care if people are horning at him to go faster. And then I realised that he had the power, and with great power comes... the option not to use it. Very measured and unassuming Ferrari driver, and the first one I've overtaken. I can't wait for the next one... ;)