What I learnt today #10

Friday 19 October 2012

Scenario: Getting ready for my day of work. I plug in my iron to take out massive crinkles that line my shirt like creases on an elephant's ear. This may be due to the fact my work shirts reside under 12 pounds of other clothes. Given my poor ironing skills, the shirt goes from the texture of crumpled newspaper to, say, a napkin. "That'll do" I mumble to myself, since I am already a half-hour late and here I am ironing my shirt while still in my drawers. 

By the time I'm downstairs, my phone rings and the office is asking me the question that I get almost 3 out of 5 mornings....."Morning Ian, (boss' name) wants to know what time you're coming into the office". I give my standard answer of 15 minutes. I could be fixing the camera on the Curiousity rover on Mars and I'll still report an ETA of 15 minutes. 

So by the time I am in the car, the urge to put some pep in my step is climbing. I reach the end of my street, which leads to a T-junction onto a major road. I stick my nose out to signal to oncoming traffic of my intent to join this major artery from a smaller blood vessel. One car goes by, then two then three..four...five. No bligh from anyone. A small line of traffic builds up in front of me as if all the long sticks in a game of tetris landed end-to-end. I look at the person driving the car that failed to let me in, since they are directly in front of me, sitting there waiting for the traffic to flow once more. They avoid eye contact in the same way a dog that just destroyed the couch cushion sits in the corner when you get home. That look of guilt transcends animal species. Yeah driver, you did smut. But I almost understand why you did that. You too are in a rush. Your actions, however inconsiderate and pointless have a motive. Congratulations for having saved yourself 0.37 seconds from your commute. But maybe that driver got 4 calls from his office as opposed to my meager solitary call. 

My brief encounter with Mr. "I gonna jam myself in the middle of the junction and play I not seeing you" this morning has taught me the following:

• People are motivated by the same things you are in most cases. They are under the same pressures, same stresses and have the same headaches. Sometimes it is worthwhile to assume that someone is under more stress than you, and irrational actions may have to be pardoned. That "may" has a long list of pre-conditions however. 

• The unnecessary pressures that people are put under cause the population to be less than nice to each other sometimes. So many arguments and road-rage incidents would have probably been avoided if people didn't feel herded like sheep down the asphalt trails to the slaughterhouse. 

This morning I let almost everyone who requested to slip in front of me in traffic a welcome pass. I waved people on and flashed my lights like it was going out of style. I didn't arrive to my destination any later than I would have had I been a squeeze out specialist. I'd like to think that somehow I made someone's day a little easier. 

So next time you see a soldier with a crumpled up shirt on his way to work at 8:30am, consider giving him a squeeze in front you.