Gloves
There comes a time in the life of every performer/athlete/worker that he must come to terms with the fact that his trade has passed him by. He's no longer at the top of his game and he can either try to squeeze out a little more glory (Mays playing for the Mets, Rice for Seahawks) or retire at the top of his game (Barry Sanders). Its that in mind when I say I've decided to hang em up. Get out before I tarnish the image people have of me in my prime.
Yep. I'm hanging up the aggressive driving gloves. I'm out of the game.
When I was driving to work a couple of weeks ago, a guy came up behind me and as I was about to move over, he swerves into the right lane, flashes his brights and honks. As he cuts back in front of me, I give him a flash of brights to return the favor. Nothing that you don't see every day on the road. Well, the guy slams on his breaks, and I instantly know this isn't a good sign. Sure enough, next stop light, he gets out of his car(!), walks up to my car and proceeds to shine a bright spotlight style flashlight at me for like 15 seconds. I give him a "you're the boss" type hand gesture. He gets back in his car and life goes on.
In my prime, I've certainly did some things on the road that one could consider provoking. I've definitely deserved some of the situations that I've gotten into. But this one wasn't one of them. 1 flash of brights was enough to get this guy out of his car and take it to the next level. That's when I knew it was over.
I realized then that this society is full of stupid, crazy, and potentially dangerous people. Obviously, the majority of folk are good and just want to get through life. But if you watch the news, there isn't a drought on crazies out there. And driving is actually one of the few times where you exposure to other people is quite high. I think part of the struggle in life is just to make it through with out getting unlucky and being the house that gets broken into, or the car that gets its wheels stolen, or even the guy that gets yelled at for no reason by the crazy homeless person. So why am I increasing my odds by potentially provoking the wrong person on the road?
Sure, there is some need for self regulation on the road. As an entity, traffic does its best to keep the crappy driver in line. But I can't be the enforcer anymore. If someone wants to drive like an ass, I'm getting out of the way and moving on with my life from now on. Yes, its a hard habit to break. It hasn't been easy. I had a woman cut me off yesterday, and it was so, so hard not to jam the horn. But I didn't. Maybe the pendulum has swung too far for me, and I'll be too passive for awhile. I'm okay with that. I'm retired and I'll at least get to my destination, which all that matters.
Yep. I'm hanging up the aggressive driving gloves. I'm out of the game.
When I was driving to work a couple of weeks ago, a guy came up behind me and as I was about to move over, he swerves into the right lane, flashes his brights and honks. As he cuts back in front of me, I give him a flash of brights to return the favor. Nothing that you don't see every day on the road. Well, the guy slams on his breaks, and I instantly know this isn't a good sign. Sure enough, next stop light, he gets out of his car(!), walks up to my car and proceeds to shine a bright spotlight style flashlight at me for like 15 seconds. I give him a "you're the boss" type hand gesture. He gets back in his car and life goes on.
In my prime, I've certainly did some things on the road that one could consider provoking. I've definitely deserved some of the situations that I've gotten into. But this one wasn't one of them. 1 flash of brights was enough to get this guy out of his car and take it to the next level. That's when I knew it was over.
I realized then that this society is full of stupid, crazy, and potentially dangerous people. Obviously, the majority of folk are good and just want to get through life. But if you watch the news, there isn't a drought on crazies out there. And driving is actually one of the few times where you exposure to other people is quite high. I think part of the struggle in life is just to make it through with out getting unlucky and being the house that gets broken into, or the car that gets its wheels stolen, or even the guy that gets yelled at for no reason by the crazy homeless person. So why am I increasing my odds by potentially provoking the wrong person on the road?
Sure, there is some need for self regulation on the road. As an entity, traffic does its best to keep the crappy driver in line. But I can't be the enforcer anymore. If someone wants to drive like an ass, I'm getting out of the way and moving on with my life from now on. Yes, its a hard habit to break. It hasn't been easy. I had a woman cut me off yesterday, and it was so, so hard not to jam the horn. But I didn't. Maybe the pendulum has swung too far for me, and I'll be too passive for awhile. I'm okay with that. I'm retired and I'll at least get to my destination, which all that matters.
posted by Roark_8 at 7:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home