You may have thought so.

Yes, I have actually crashed 

into a truck that ran in front of me.

At that time 

I started to work 

for a new school and 

I thought I was trying 

to be careful not to be late, 

working sort of hard 

to get recognition from people 

around me.

For that matter, 

I do remember 

some newly hired teachers 

had to leave the school 

one or two years later. 

As for me, 

I have been working 

for the school since then.

It's been about 16 years 

since I started to work there. 

Perhaps 

people usually don't know 

teachers come and go 

every now and then. 

You may think 

"oh, teachers, they just teach 

something basic 

and do some small work 

like taking attendance 

and give some instruction 

about tests, school events 

and everyday miscellaneous."

Well, you may be right. 

But don't forget 

that being teachers means 

having to deal with children, 

who are curious, serious, 

trying to find out everything 

about the world 

to make their own idea 

about this world. 

It's hard. 

They sometimes don't know 

what will hurt others 

and maybe sometimes 

they intentionally hurt others. 

For they are doing experiments, 

yes, that's what it is. 

Well, anyway, 

I was tired 

because I started to work 

as a new teacher 

at a new school. 

I was driving home 

on a route where 

there was no traffic light 

for a long stretch of straight road. 

It was a big, two-lane road 

connecting boring, 

industrial cities. 

So the environment 

was highly boring to drive in. 

At that time I was running 

surrounded in three sides 

by big trucks. 

So it was as if 

I was driving in a room 

tightly surrounded by big walls. 

at one moment.  

The next I knew was 

I bit my tongue, 

and I wondered 

why I had bitten my tongue?? 

The truck in front of me 

was running 

as if nothing had happened. 

Then, I realized that 

my bumper and bonnet was totally disfigured 

like a Japanese alphabet, 

'he' "へ".    

Apparently I had crashed 

into the truck running 

in front of me, 

but both of us were running 

almost at the same speed, 

and the impact was minimal. 

That was why 

the truck driver hadn't realized 

that he was hit by my car 

and that was why 

or thank cats?   

It seems that I am protected 

by so many souls of my cats.

I love you all, not only living ones,