"We've Read Enough Books"

I read this reaction from Jared Kushner who was commenting about the Middle East. "We don't want a history lesson," he said. Clearly he doesn't need to read. He's a brilliant tactician except when it comes to dealing with Russians, the press, and being able to pull on his own underwear with the tag in the back. Of course he doesn't need to read.

JFK averted the Cuban Missile Crisis as a result of reading Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August. JFK understood that history is a great teacher, and in order to avert a great tragedy, he paid attention. He read. He thought. The book changed his life and our nation as a result.

Books have value. They can motivate, inspire, change our lives. Even change our behavior. Whether you heft them or scan them on Kindle, they shift our perspectives. And in some ways they can save our lives.

Even in the age of tweets, when people's attention spans are the span of hummingbird farts.

Of course, people actually have to attend long enough to read them.

I just did, and the one I read should be required reading for anyone who owns any kind of technological device. Anyone working in the cell phone business. Anyone working on a piece of legislation affection traffic, driving, and texting. Who has a child who drives, who also owns a phone. I could go on.

A Deadly Wandering, by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Richtel, delves into the true story of Reggie Shaw. Reggie is a Mormon teenager who, in the early fall of 2006, like so many of us, was texting and driving.

That decision would cause him to wander over the center line of his mountain road and take the lives of two brilliant rocket scientists, shattering families and setting into play a series of events that continue to affect all of us to this day.

Richtel's book reads like the mystery thriller that it is, part courtroom drama, part scientific thriller, as he explores the science behind what we know about attention, and what the brain can and cannot handle. Especially while driving. How addictive our devices truly are, and why it is nearly impossible to put them down, even though the majority of us emphatically agree that texting and driving are dangerous.

I connected with Richtel when he came through Denver with his new book, Dead on Arrival, a fictional thriller. When I couldn't attend his book signing because of a broken back (my horse threw me and no, I wasn't texting), I reached out. He responded and recommended this book as well. I inhaled it in two days. It's just that good. The problem is, most of us should have read it by now. It's been out since 2014.

But we haven't.

Because if we had, we'd all toss our cell phones in the trunk when we drive.

That's how serious this is.

Wandering isn't just about Reggie Shaw, the court case, and the judgement. The families who were affected. It's about our brains on technology. It's about the science we're just beginning to understand. How addictive this technology really is. The lie about multitasking. How few of us can really do it. And how much more deadly the phone is, say, than momentarily looking down for a dropped french fry. The science is brutal. And since this was back in 2014, the research since has shown we can't handle the distraction, and we're more addicted, and more dangerous than ever.

Here's a little factoid for ya: According to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI), sending or receiving a text takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving blind at 55-mph for the length of an entire football field.

Hey, I can't speak for you, but that makes me feel really, really safe out there. Along with all of you mascara-applying, Big Mac-gorming, television-watching, child-bashing, alcohol-gulping drivers who are ALSO texting while driving in the fast lane, flipping the bird at other drivers, and trying to change channels with the other hand on that great big, flashing, distracting dashboard display.

About half a million people are killed as a result of texting, which is likely not an accurate count, given that people lie about their phone use and phone companies are not swift in providing records. It's not in their interest to do so. It's notoriously hard to catch people in the act when the phone is in their lap. Which is a great place to be looking when you have just crossed the center line to slam head-on into a school bus full of adolescent girls headed for Happy Days Sunday school.

You are driving a two-ton weapon. Blind. At speeds up to 80 miles an hour. Just what do you think is going to happen?

The September 2017 National Geographic slapped onto my living floor yesterday morning, courtesy my postal service worker. On the cover:

The Science of Addiction: How new discoveries about the brain can help us kick the habit.

Scattered throughout the story were numerous references to cell phone and Internet addictions. From the story:

"Some scientists believe that many allures of modern life- junk food, shopping, smart phones- are potentially addictive because of their powerful effects on the brain's reward system, the circuitry underlying craving."

I would posit that's an understatement. There are already twelve-step programs for overeaters, shoppers, internet and internet gaming, and coming to your neighborhood soon, cell phone addicts.

While some of us are more susceptible than others (my phone calls can go to voicemail and I often leave it at home), the truth is that the industry pushes us to be more interconnected than ever. Even suggesting that someday, we get an implant. Exactly how is that going to help us focus, when the majority of us can't keep a thought in our head longer than a goldfish (nine seconds according to Microsoft, TimeHealth, May 13, 2015)?

Those who believe they can multitask should read A Deadly Wandering. I used to think I could until I found myself halfway up a sidewalk heading for a little kid on a bike.

At 35 miles an hour.

Thank God for good reflexes. All that happened was one scared kid and a lot of tire rubber on the sidewalk. I pulled over, opened my car door and vomited.

Then I threw my phone in the back seat, where it should have been in the first place.

That's the very last time I ever, ever looked at my phone while driving.

Until your child gets killed, until your father is T-boned, until you open the door and a state trooper stares at your face with THAT look, this is someone else's problem.

Until.

Read A Deadly Wandering. My sincere hope is that not only will it fundamentally change the way you think about texting and driving, but you will never use your phone while driving again. That won't solve the problem with other drivers, but at least it takes one more blind person off the road.