<FYI> You’ve probably noticed I don’t post much anymore. I made a promise that I wouldn’t churn out material simply to churn out material. There had to be a lesson somewhere. Some kind of take-away. Time’s too short to fill it with fluff. </FYI>
Anywho, what happened this morning to bring me to the keys? Stupidity. Mind control. Programming. Selfishness. You label it however you wish once I’m done.
Here goes: As I approached an on-ramp, I noticed two cars merging into traffic. Both are side-by-side: a Honda Civic and an Accord, same color—silver—one big, one small. As their two lanes merge to then further merge onto the freeway, they begin to battle for who will be first.
Mind you, merging lane is running out on both cars. Any minute, they’ll collide, if one doesn’t get off the gas and bow to the other. BUT . . . neither wants to be the bigger person. Both want the lane. Both are halfway in the one lane. Common sense tells me, and I’m sure it tells you the same, that both can’t occupy the same space at the same time, for if they do, that’s called an accident. Which in this case would not have been an accident in as much as it would have been intentional on both their parts.
I take my own foot off the gas, and begin working my way over to the lanes to the left of me. If they’re truly not going to give it up, I don’t want to place myself in the wake of their flying metal. Why, I have to ask, does it matter which of them gets onto the freeway first? How will being first change their day?
The answer is if they wreck, BOTH of their days will be changed. If one slows and let’s the other on, their days might not be changed so drastically. While they might be a bit peeved for a moment or two, they’d still be around to tell the tale. So, what is it that keeps them on their imminent collision course? Why are they unwilling to stop the inevitable? Can they not see and predict the outcome? Were they not taught to pick their battles? And why wait until they’re pushing 5,000 pounds of metal to choose this battle?
Whether it’s that I didn’t pay much attention in the past or that it’s happening with increasing frequency, it would appear that people have plum lost their damned minds. The fact that they would subject not only themselves but other motorists to injury or worse is sheer madness.
I got the feeling that the only people in their little world on this particular morning was the two of them. No thought given to how their actions might affect others. No cares either. Has this not become the American mindset? OR had it always been the American mindset? Frequent shows of selfishness, followed by rare instances of compassion.
As I watched one of the cars zoom away—first onto the freeway, for all that’s worth—I thought about how people interact in their day-to-day. How when people gather and there’s one person, maybe two, always trying to one-up everybody else. These people can never savor someone else’s accomplishments or happy moments, without sharing one, two or three of their own. Always a story. Always the shining star.
And then there’s the one—the instigator—always pretending to play the devil’s advocate, while secretly hoping to be able to crash into you, into me. These people get their jollies, not so much in being right, but in getting you to bow, to take your foot off the gas so that they can get onto the freeway first.
The best advice I can give when coming across either of these types is to do what I did on this particular morning—move to another lane. Don’t waste time fighting them for the one that leads to nowhere. Let ’em have it all to themselves. You will find that there are people in this world who would do anything to provoke a response from another, even if it means crashing.
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