The Text Can Wait: Why No Message Is Worth a Life

 

We like to imagine we’re good at multitasking. We juggle work, family, errands, notifications, and the endless drip of digital life. So when a text comes in while we’re driving, it feels harmless to glance down for a second. Just a quick reply. Just a few words. Just a moment.

But on the road, “just a moment” is all it takes for everything to change.

Texting while driving isn’t a bad habit. It’s a lethal one. Looking down for five seconds at highway speed means traveling the length of a football field without seeing the road. We wouldn’t close our eyes for that long behind the wheel, yet we do the functional equivalent every time we read or send a message.

And the danger isn’t abstract. It’s not a statistic floating somewhere out in the world. It’s personal. It’s the knock on the door no family ever wants. It’s the phone call that splits a life into “before” and “after.” It’s the surgeries, the scars, the grief, the years of rebuilding. It’s the loved ones who don’t come home.

We tell ourselves we’re careful. We tell ourselves we’re quick. We tell ourselves we’re different. But distraction doesn’t negotiate. It doesn’t care how responsible we are, how much we love our families, or how urgently we think we need to respond. It only needs a sliver of our attention to take everything else.

The truth is simple: no text is worth a life. Not yours. Not anyone else’s.

So here’s the invitation—gentle, firm, and absolutely non‑negotiable. Put the phone out of reach. Turn on Do Not Disturb. Let the message wait. The world will not fall apart if you respond ten minutes later. But someone’s world can fall apart if you don’t.

Driving is one of the most dangerous things we do every day, and we forget that because routine breeds complacency. But routine can also breed new habits. Safer ones. Life‑preserving ones.

Choose the habit that keeps you alive. Choose the habit that keeps others alive. Choose the habit that ensures you get home.

The text can wait. Your life cannot.

post inspired by One Simple Text . . . (Shaw & Brown)

Book description:

It was every parent's worst nightmare. On a sun-drenched morning in April 2012, a Maryland state trooper knocked on Betty Shaw's front door and delivered the grim news that her 17-year-old daughter, Liz, had been involved in a horrible car accident and was clinging to life.

Liz recovered from her life-threatening injuries but suffered severe and permanent effects from the accident. Texting while driving caused Liz's crash, and she and her mother went on a mission to educate people about the perils of distracted driving. The pair began to speak before various groups, and as their popularity grew, they launched a video about Liz's story which went viral, spawning magazine and online articles, as well as several TV appearances, including one on Oprah Winfrey's Where Are They Now? show.

In One Simple Text, Betty Shaw recounts her daughter's frightening and arduous but ultimately uplifting and inspirational journey. Betty chronicles Liz's ordeal from the day of the accident and provides a glimpse of their life on the speaking and television circuit. This is a poignant memoir about a young woman who triumphed over tragedy; a mother and daughter's love; and the indomitable power of the human spirit.

Awards
Hollywood Book Festival Honorable Mention
Kops-Fetherling International Book Awards: Legacy Award for
Inspiration/Motivation
story told on the Oprah Winfrey Show

 For more posts about Betty and Dave and their book, click HERE.

Click for more stories about going from tragedy to triumph and overcoming the odds.

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALL OUR AUTHORS AND TITLES.

Purchase this book at 25% discount
with coupon code FF25 at MSI Press webstore!

Want to buy this book and not have to pay for it?
Ask your local library to purchase and shelve it.

 

Sign up for the MSI Press LLC monthly newsletter

(recent releases, sales/discounts, awards, reviews, Amazon top 100 list, author advice, and more -- stay up to date)

Read current/previous issues of the newsletter here.

 

Follow MSI Press on Twitter, Face Book, and Instagram. 

Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? 

We help writers become award-winning published authors. One writer at a time. We are a family, not a factory. Do you have a future with us?

Turned away by other publishers because you are a first-time author and/or do not have a strong platform yet? If you have a strong manuscript, San Juan Books, our hybrid publishing division, may be able to help.

Check out information on how to submit a proposal.

Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our author au pair services will mentor you through the process.

Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book in exchange for reviewing a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com.
Want an author-signed copy of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.

Julia Aziz, signing her book, Lessons of Labor, at an event at Book People in Austin, Texas.

Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our Authors' Pages.

Steven Greenebaum, author of award-winning books, An Afternoon's Discussion and One Family: Indivisible, talking to a reader at Barnes & Noble in Gilroy, California.

   

MSI Press is ranked among the top publishers in California.

Check out our rankings -- and more -- HERE.