Traffic Grace
I’m not a patient driver. It’s a truth and I recognize it. I was raised in Michigan where driving is considerably more… motivated? than most driving in Indiana (except Indy). In Michigan you had best not only be watching your own light at the intersection, but you should be watching for the other direction’s light to turn yellow so you can have your RPM already moving up when your light turns green.
When I was 19-21 in the Army I would visit my brother in Dallas. As the expressway comes into the city it drops down about 20 feet into what are called “the canyons”- five lanes of traffic each way going about 85 mph and everyone trying not to leave more than 20 feet between them and the car in front of them, lest someone else pull in to that space. As I would enter into the lowered highway I would yell out loud “Accelerate to attack speed!”
Even though I am a bit less into that sort of contact sport in my middle-age, I still drive with the purpose of getting where I am heading to in a high degree of efficiency. If a trip is supposed to take 22 minutes and it takes 26 it bugs me. This morning, I sat in disbelief at the corner of 26 and 9 while three drivers at the 4-way stop stared at each other for a full 7 seconds not knowing who should go. One finally took the initiative after I tooted on my horn. It was… irritating.
Then, however, I remembered something I heard on the Christian radio station. Brant Hansen was talking about this very thing, and he said that he now considers traffic to be “forgiveness practice”. So instead of getting annoyed at the poor driving practices of those around him, with a smile he just says (even out loud sometimes)~ “I forgive you, and I forgive you, and I even forgive you.”
I think this is probably a good idea. Instead of letting what someone else does behind the wheel get my blood pressure up, I should do that. And maybe, just maybe, they will be forgiving of me as well. 😉