I appreciate the well meant advice but wanted to assure you I don't ride with emotional baggage other than just the pure love of riding. My statement about ride like they can see you and want to hit you is just my tongue-in-cheek way of over-stressing the "ride like you are invisible" advice.Glad to hear you weren't hurt worse because you certainly could have been.
Riding motorcycles makes us more vulnerable not special. So carrying emotional baggage as pillion can distract us from the principle task at hand— riding safely to enjoy the ride. The more baggage the more likely we might let ourselves overreact or be distracted. That serves no good purpose.
I say, "Don't ride like you are invisible. Ride like they want to hit you and make sure they can't."
At no time do I actually believe anyone wants to hit me. Sorry to have given the wrong impression.
Another quote I like is "If someone does not try to kill you every time you ride, you aren't paying close enough attention."
Later,
Kent