Let’s talk about Pothole Forgiveness Time (PFT).  PFT comes into play whenever you are behind the wheel, you drive into a rut or pothole, and all the passengers experience a jolt.  When a passenger experiences a jolt, someone is to blame, but the time from blame to forgiveness (PFT) varies, depending on where one sits in the vehicle.

If you are the driver, you will forgive yourself for hitting the pothole in one or two seconds.  OK, you think, I hit that pothole but we’re all past that now and there’s a lot of road ahead.  I’m at the wheel.  Let’s keep driving.

If you are one of the back-seat passengers, you forgive the driver in five seconds or so — you have put your faith in the driver to transport you to the destination and you are not in a position of control.  You just raise your eyebrows at the bump in the road, look back and hang on.  After a while, you have forgotten about that pothole.

But if you are the front-seat passenger, the intensity of the jolt is fifteen times that felt by the driver and the back-seat passengers.  Your PFT is measured in minutes, if not tens of minutes.  You think, I could have avoided that pothole!  I can’t believe he didn’t see it!  Who is this person, anyway, sitting in the driver’s seat — I can do better than he’s doing, why should I trust him?

Husbands and wives experiencing PFT lasting more than thirty minutes are advised to leave the vehicle immediately and go directly to bed, where such infractions may be put into proper perspective.