In the vast plains of Texas, the roads have become a battleground. Here, man’s struggle with machine becomes a grim ballet, dance steps charted in skid marks and broken glass. A study has shown that these Texans, bold as they are, rank as the nation’s most reckless drivers, a dubious honor indeed. Louisiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, trailing behind, keep pace in this perilous race.

The metrics of the study are as sobering as the cold morning after a night’s revelry in Pamplona. Drunk drivers, distracted drivers, those who cannot fight off the lure of Morpheus, all contribute to the dangerous dance. They push forward, like the matadors in the sun-drenched arenas, heedless of the looming danger.

Montana, the ninth in the line, has its own tale to tell, of drivers with liquor running hot in their veins, outnumbering any other state per capita. It is as if the inhabitants have taken to heart Jake Barnes’ lament in “The Sun Also Rises” – “How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

Interestingly, those places where man has most densely congregated, like Rhode Island, California, and Massachusetts, show a different narrative. They’re like the quiet, diligent fisherman Santiago from “The Old Man and the Sea”, their roads filled with cautious drivers, their incident reports significantly thinner.

My opinion

In my time, I’ve seen much of the world, from the cafes of Paris to the plains of Africa, from the bullrings of Spain to the sea that separates Cuba from the mainland. I’ve seen men and women at their best and worst, sometimes both at once. It is a curious thing to read about these roads, these drivers.

It is not unlike the bullfight, this dance of metal and speed. There is a reckless beauty to it, but it carries a heavy price. It seems to me that there are those who have forgotten that with freedom comes responsibility, that the open road is not just a place of joy and liberation, but also a place of caution and respect for others.

It is a sobering thing, this report. It reminds us all of the need for caution, for respect for the lives of others. It is a cautionary tale for our times, a reminder that, as Jake Barnes knew all too well, the road to disaster is often paved with good intentions and bad decisions.

The post Hemingway: Texas, the Unrivaled in Roads of Recklessness first appeared on Famous Writers AI.

The post Hemingway: Texas, the Unrivaled in Roads of Recklessness appeared first on Famous Writers AI.