Let's Be Honest: Traffic Sucks

I will admit that I am not the most patient person in the world, but I think it's safe to say that not many people enjoy sitting in traffic.

I think traffic really brings out the stupidity in a lot of people. Honestly, how dumb can we be? We insist on cutting people off and merging into their lanes at the last minute, sometimes signaling, but we inch up right to the tail of the car behind us so that others can't do the same to us. Traffic really exposes the innate hypocrisy we all possess as humans.

Don't even get me started if it starts raining. It's like we forget all common sense and become hydrophobic maniacs. I am trying to remember the last time I drove on a highway when it was even just a little wet out, and there wasn't a wreck of some sort. Nope, nothing seems to come to mind.

I think one of the real issues at hand here is that we are all in a hurry. We all want to drive so fast so that we can go do whatever it is we are going to do. Half of the time, we are driving places we don't even want to go in the first place. But we sure as heck don't want to be sitting at a standstill in our cars, that's for sure. At least our actions on the road would suggest as much.

And we become these beasts that usually don't even match our true life characters. It's as if being behind a wheel and in a sheltered vehicle with windows, sometimes even tinted, allows us to take on new personalities and say (or should I say scream?) whatever it is that pops into our stressed out heads at the time. And I won't even go into all the madman gestures I have seen. (And yes, plenty of those were directed at me, I am sure.) It's almost like the road is our stage, and we are all just actors playing parts of lunatics with steering wheels. But, are we really acting? Or are we just revealing pieces of ourselves that we are too afraid to let anyone else see? Sure, other road warriors witness our frustrations, but our thoughts are simply that we don't know those people, so we don't really have to care how they see us act. The truth of the matter is, we should care. If we aren't true to ourselves, even amidst the frustrations of horrendous bumper-to-bumper situations, to whom can we be true?

Yes, I will probably still want to scream at the top of my lungs and maybe not think the nicest thoughts about the person who nearly sideswipes me to get in my lane so that he or she can be one car length ahead of the lane next to us, but I will sure try to control some rage. I am going to make a conscious effort to allow someone to go in front of me if I see a blinker and an eager prowler trying to avoid eye contact with the last person driven to madness by the driver's last action. After all, wouldn't I want to help that person if we were strangers on a street? Wouldn't I hold the elevator for him or her? Wouldn't I try to be kind and generous? So, what's the difference if I am in my car or not? It's just one more car length. It's just another four or so seconds. The chaos of traffic shouldn't cause me to fall so much in my character. It's just one aspect of life.

There are so many more important things about which to worry. Besides, a little decline in the rapid pace of life might actually be helpful every now and then.