Let me make something clear at the top of this post; I am not a very patient person. When patience was being handed out, I was off in either the love of animals or love of yarn queues. I know this about myself and I try to work on it, but in some situations it is the wilderbeast who is causing my impatience who is at fault and not me.
So what started this train of thought and compelled me to post? It was a story on Facebook about a woman whose teenage brother tragically died 10 days before her wedding and what she learnt in the following 15 years. I don’t know who posted it, but in the beginning I found it very touching. Then I thought on the point about patience.
In this point she used the example of going 15 mph in the left lane because you are distracted by your troubles and how we should all have compassion and not honk or give dirty looks. NO. No no no no no no no. If someone is going 15 mph in the fast lane, it is your duty to honk them because they are driving really dangerously. What if the next person is not as patient as you? What if they do something else really dangerous and cause an accident? Then many more people could be having the worst day of their lives. You don’t know what they are going through and maybe we should practice more compassion, but they need to snap out of it for the safety of everyone.
Honestly, it’s not all about you and your story, however tragic and awful. What if the person honking is on the way to see a loved one in peril? What if they are on their way to see the birth of their child? What about their stories?
The other example was about standing in the middle of an aisle at the supermarket for 10 minutes because they are obsorbed in a train of thought. Well in that situation they are not in charge of a 1 ton, fast moving hunk of metal. You can say excuse me, you can be nice.
So maybe the next time someone beeps at you because you are going 15 mph in the left lane, instead of blaming them for being impatient maybe you should raise your hand in apology and think about whether you should be driving given the enormous emotional strain you are under. Maybe you should not blame the lion….
The Grumpy Cat... 