This evening as I was driving home from work, I got a glimpse of my former self.
I used to have a terrible problem with road rage. I would curse, honk, tailgate. Not pretty. And very un-Christian.
Over the past few years, I've mellowed out.
This evening, I merged into another lane and although I had plenty of space, the driver behind me took exception to my move. She beeped at me. As we got off the exit ramp, she gave me a continuous honk and pulled up next to me so she could flip me off and I presume, curse at me as I could see she was yelling at me. Both of our windows were up, so I have no idea what she was really yelling.
What struck me was how ridiculous her actions were. Was she trying to change the fact that I had merged in front of her? Get me to apologize? Fight me? Teach me a lesson?
Reflecting back on my own bouts of road rage, I think my motivation was to get the person to admit that they had wronged me in some way, to acknowledge that they had put their need to get somewhere ahead of my safety and the safety of others. Right. Because that was going to happen.
It's interesting when your own past mistakes are reflected back to you. I'm so glad I've mellowed out.
