Okay, follow my story...it's a little confusing: recently, a man ran his stop sign at a two-way stop to make a left turn. This caused him to cut me off totally. That's fine; sometimes people don't notice the big red octagon or that it's not a four-way stop. It happens. The funny part is that at the same time he began to run it, a driver opposite him was taking a right, legally. I could see the man who cut me off cursing and yelling at this other driver, completely ticked because he'd been personally insulted, I suppose, at the other guy's lack of driving etiquette.
Drivers.... We all hate 'em. They are crazy, maniacal people with no sense of compassion for others. They make us angry and we want to just run 'em off the road. Because they just don't know how to drive.
Here's the dirty little secret though. *Hushed whisper* WE are drivers.
We all drive insanely. We all cut somebody off at some point or another, whether intentionally or not. We all sit in the middle of the intersection waiting for the light to turn yellow so we can turn left- but we don't make it until it's actually red. We all speed up at the yellow light. We change the station, talk on the phone, reach for the coffee cup which somehow ended up in the back. The truth is, we are all crazy drivers.
But it's okay.
What's not okay is the anger some people seem to have over it. There is no personal vendetta out for us. No other people on the road are thinking, "Oooh, she looks like a good target. I'm gonna cut her off." That would be conceited of us to think so. We are not that important, unfortunately. Or fortunately, I guess in this case.
So I have a proposal. Next time somebody takes the merging lane, passing ten cars ahead of you only to cut in.....let it go. There's a merge lane for a reason; to merge. Next time somebody accidentally runs straight through that red light because the left turn signal turned green....let it go. It was mistake. None of it is worth the energy anger takes from you. And truth be told, anger has rarely made any situation better. In fact, it usually makes things worse. We all know this I think, but we forget. So please, let's just all be nice, whether we're on the road or not. Nicety makes things.....nice.
I'll end with another true story. We sat at a red light admiring a cyclist who was able to stay perfectly still without putting his feet down. Cars across from us were turning left. Our light turned green and the cyclist took off, giving the middle finger to the cars turning in front of him. I mean, really?
I am the cyclist.... I worked long and hard to perfecting no feet... And I was just saying he was number one. ; ) I cannot wait to read you next post!
ReplyDeleteP.s. You should post a hit counter... It is always fun to see how many people are visiting without posting. : )