The car darted in front of me.  I braked and took a deep breath.  You could say it had enough room to move into my lane, but you could also say Special K is a delicious breakfast cereal.  Both would be fairly suspect.  Normally I am a very laid back driver, most always observing the two second rule of the highway.  This time that wasn’t the case.  A fact that didn’t stop the person from injecting their automobile into my personal driving space.  People are rude sometimes and some people are simply rude.  I don’t know which of these would best apply to the person that jumped into my highway bubble, but it did allow me to see my surroundings from another perspective.

We all know people who are a bit rude, or we ourselves, sometimes have a bad day and can treat those around us poorly.  Looking out over the sea of cars stretching ahead of me, I started to see personality in the vast rows of motors and chrome.

There is the “drive too slow and too far to the right” person.  The one that doesn’t really want to interact with society but still has to, pulse pounding and anxiety at full tilt, occasionally go to the work or worse still to store surrounded by people they do not know.

There is the “road general”.  The hall monitors patrolling the open road.  Except this hall monitor doesn’t have a yellow sash and notebook.  They have a two-ton vehicle that they plan on using to let you know that you are not allowed to go 62 in the left lane.  You can spot the “road generals” pretty easily.  They are the ones you can make out the crinkles in their lips as they mouth you through your rear-view mirror.  It’s never a blessing on your family, but it sometimes involves them.

There are those that believe that the road is paved in their image.  That it was bestowed upon them at a great ceremony of flowers and champagne on their 16^th birthday.   They care far less about the driving pleasure of others, as long as the trumpets of their mind sound their mighty song when they speed down the freeway.

There is the odd combination of bedfellows belonging to the “you’re going to love my music” crowd.  One, a flag waving pickup truck with the windows down belting out a country song and the other, a slightly lowered sedan, it’s windows vibrating from the bass.  Both, strangely enough, and unknown to themselves, headed for the local Wal-Mart, having far more in common than they would even allow themselves to realize.

The skittish who are kind of loving the thrill of it.

The brand-new drivers that don’t yet know to what, if any, category they belong.

Each of us playing a varying part in a great sea of metal and smog winding its way down the endless yellow lined pavement.  Some, their personalities heighten simply by putting their foot down on the gas pedal.  Others pull back into themselves, enjoying the calm that a drive can bring.

Now as the brake lights ahead begin to alight and the inevitable slow down occurs, we can find another of our human traits bringing itself to the forefront.  It’s not the reaction that happens as you realize your drive has just been extended that interests me most.  It’s the way in which you deal with the cause that is intriguing.  After having sat in the stop and go line of differing personalities for some time you come to the slow and somewhat maddening realization that this entire back up is the result of a simple traffic stop.  A police officer has dared to do his job in the middle of your day.  Do you put your foot to the floor and pass by avoiding the temptation of repeating the transgression of all your fellow rubber-neckers that have preceded you?  Or are you unable to resist the need to look over and see just what is happening?  Choosing information over haste and keeping the chain of red brake lights shining behind you.

One way or another and no matter the category we all fit in, we have one thing in common.  We are sharing this highway on this day at this particular hour.  If we choose to rail against each other’s personalities the road becomes a more dangerous place to be.  However, if we can stay in our lane and understand that though we may be different in personality, we are all driving on the same highway, we might just make it to our destinations safely.

 

 

As a side note, some of you, who have read this or some of the other posts I have written, may be thinking, “this guy is so kumbaya!”  Believe me; I think it of myself quite a bit.  I acknowledge in the vastness of traffic there are bigots, racists, misogynists and maybe even a serial killer.  Hell, I’ve been driving around for I don’t know how long with a tail light out.  I know they are there and I attempt to dissuade them from their thought processes when appropriate.  I simply find no value in producing thought based on the worst of us.  I wish to instead address ideas that stand a chance of being heard.  It is highly unlikely that a true bigot or what-have-you will be able to see a perspective from another angle and that is a good deal of what I attempt to do.