Just One’s Everyday Commute
This morning, I found myself in a familiar spot–sitting in my car at one of the four-way stops that litter the beginning of my commute. An SUV driven by a woman I’ve never seen before in my life stopped at her sign just after I stopped at mine. We then both proceeded to drive forward at the same time. This is not uncommon–often, four-way stops are a flurry of either entitlement or consideration. In this case, I stopped to let her drive through the intersection first. As she did, she looked to her left, in my direction, and glared over at me with an angry face that reminded me, for some reason, of an evil Bert from Sesame Street. She was mouthing something I couldn’t make out, but I’m sure it wasn’t anything like “Thanks, have a nice day!” At the same time, I was mouthing (with a baffled look on my face), “But I was there first…”
My next emotion was initially anger. How dare she be a Pissy Patty at me, when she is the one who moved out of turn? That only lasted about 30 seconds, though. As I moved forward with my drive, thankfully in a different direction than the other driver, the feelings turned to only confusion. I asked myself, “Why was she actually angry?” I mean…I stopped moving forward so that she could continue. I imagine maybe she thought that she stopped first (wasn’t the case, in my view), but it WAS very close! Nothing bad happened, though. She was able to go on her way without an issue–I didn’t flip her off or give her any mean looks, and we didn’t have a wreck or anything. She either had had a terrible morning prior to the four-way stop, or she was just angry to be angry, or maybe she is a very ANTI-MORNING person. Whatever the reason, I decided I’m not letting it keep me angry or put me in a bad mood. And even though I DO wish for some birds to poop in hard-to-clean places on her car, today, for Karma’s sake, I can accept that she was angry without letting it anger me, in turn. Feels like a personal breakthrough, to be honest. Happy Friday!
LeahWould 