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Flare Up or Forbearance? (By Cynthia L. Smith)


I was driving down one of the little rural country roads that is part of the charm of Stanislaus County where I live on a warm sunny afternoon a few weeks ago, listening to an old James Taylor song when... WHOOSH! While I was driving, okay I admit it, around 5 to 7 miles over the speed limit which was 45 mph, this guy was doing at least 60 mph maybe even 70 mph! I thought to myself "what a jerk! Here it is, a nice, bright, sunny day, and you're driving like a bat out of you-know-where! You could cause a devastating accident!" I was very perturbed.

More recently, a little red car was racing down the road, darting in and out of traffic, clearly on a mission. Pulling up to the light, which was red, the driver in the car next to her glanced at the driver of the red car and seeing it was a woman driver thought to himself, "that figures; another 'crazy woman driver'!" The light turned green and she about floored it to get ahead of him. She was soon stopped once again but this time at a 4-way stop. Of course every single street had someone sitting there and as usual, there was at least one who didn't know whose turn it was to go so everybody just sits there. But not the woman in the red car! She just darts around the car in front of her and GOES across the intersection! Oh the cacophony of voices in the cars watching all this! "What an IDIOT!", One man screams out his window, "Ass-----!" A man driving a beat up old pickup says "she needs to be taught some respect!" and imagines himself punching her in the face.

At the first roundabout the woman in the red car just closes her eyes and plows through, cutting off two other drivers, causing them to slam on their brakes, narrowly missing hitting each other as well as her. "Some people need driving lessons!", said one driver, cussing her out. The other driver, a sweet little old lady, is so upset she decides it won't be long before she can't handle driving anymore.

I certainly do NOT condone reckless, dangerous driving, under ANY circumstances, but we really never know the circumstances of the PEOPLE that drive the cars that surround us on the roads. We seem to just look at cars and see nothing but impersonal, brightly colored, brand-new or beat up vehicles that get in our way sometimes when we have somewhere to go. The people within those cars have lives, families and places to go just like us. We can CHOOSE how we want to feel about someone cutting us off, racing past us at a stop sign or stop light, or when they pass us on a country road, sometimes flipping us off when they do; we get to CHOOSE how or even IF we react. In these troublesome times, reacting can get you killed!

I got a phone call recently and it was my daughter crying hysterically informing me of a devastating family emergency. I had to get over to her house immediately! Fortunately she only lives about three miles from me. It shouldn't take me but a few minutes! I jumped into my little red car...

We never know the circumstances of those drivers that DO race past us, cut us off, weave in and out of traffic, seemingly on a "mission". We can choose to "flare up" -- cussing them out, judging them as being "idiots" or worse, "call down evil" on them, or we can be "forbearing" -- decide that maybe, just maybe, their "mission" is to get to a devastated family member, or to the hospital because someone they love has been injured or worse. But HOW we react is our choice. It can make or break our day.

So when you're out driving today, be careful... there are some real "nuts" on the road!


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