Something exhilarating

I ran a red light today.

I was sitting at a red light at 4:30 am. There's not normally a red light here. A construction crew installed it because the bridge is reduced to one lane.

It's been there for two months. I hit the damn red light every time, invariably slowing my travel time by 63 seconds.

This morning, there was a car on the other side of the bridge waiting for his light to turn green. There is 18 seconds between the time my side turned red and his side turned green. Someone smarter than me in the realm of traffic studies figured out that it takes 18 seconds to clear the bridge before the opposite side is given the right of way.

There wasn't another car behind me nor behind my opponent. He cleared the bridge while his light turned red. I could see the glare of the light in the darkness on the other side matching the light on my side.

I wasn't in a hurry. I saw no need to remain seated, so I went through the red light expecting a policeman to emerge from his hiding place to give me a ticket. What else is there to do at 4:30 in the morning except sit and wait for petty breakers of law to create a traffic sin?

It is not my nature to do something like this. The last time I ran a clear red light was about the same time 19 years ago. I was on my way to work in the city and the traffic light stayed red for what seemed forever. There wasn't any opposite traffic, so I put on my hazard lights and went through the light pretending I had some sort of emergency.

Both times, it felt wrong. Both times, it felt great.

I was breaking an inexplicable law that wasn't going to hurt anyone.

Half way through the bridge this morning, I could see the red hue still lit in my rear-view mirror.  My discomfort turned to exhilaration and joy as I got through the other side without incident.

Time isn't the only thing I saved this morning. In my delinquent behaviour, my body secreted a small amount of dopamine. With that, I'm a bit happier today.

You don't need to be a delinquent to secrete dopamine. You need to do things outside of your comfort zone.

That's why some pleasure seekers jump out of perfectly good airplanes, ride roller coasters, and do extreme sports.

Your pleasure can be found in smaller, less risky adventures. You need to run the proverbial red light from time to time.

Otherwise life is soooo boring.