Giving up speeding for Lent

Tom Monaghan slowed down for Lent, and it’s paid off in more ways than one. . .

Thomas Monaghan

Over the years, I have come to recognize that one of my many faults is driving too fast. In recent years, I have been stopped for speeding on numerous occasions in Michigan and Florida. Somehow, on each of these occasions, I have always gotten off with just a warning. In fact the last time I was stopped, the policeman sent a baseball to my office for me to sign!

Only a few days before Lent began, I was having a hard time coming up with something to do — or give up — for Lent. After having “dodged the bullet” many times by avoiding a ticket, I had a motorcycle policeman pull me over and give me a ticket — my first in years. I was of course disappointed, and then I realized what I could give up for Lent.

Nick Healy, the president of Ave Maria University and member of the Naples Chapter of Legatus, told me he always stays within five miles of the speed limit. When he told me that, I thought that was pretty slow. My philosophy had always been that they give you 10 and I will take another five — a total of 15 miles over — and meanwhile keep on the lookout for the police.

So, after my recent encounter, I decided I would be like Nick and not go more than five miles over the speed limit. (In Florida, they passed a law that you cannot be ticketed for five miles over.) Driving the speed limit seems so outrageously slow you would be holding up traffic, but five miles over seems just about right.

Now I am much less tense when I am driving and my conscience is clear. So as many other past Lenten resolutions, I will do this one for life. The policeman did me a favor; he may have even saved my life — or someone else’s!

Tom Monaghan is the founder and chairman of Legatus. He is a member of the Legatus’ Naples Chapter.