Where I’m Coming From

I have a lot of time for deep thoughts and imagination adventures during my usual two hours (plus) a day in the car driving to work and home. I think about the people I see carpooling. Do they like each other? Do they talk or listen to music? Maybe he has a crush on the girl passenger.

Often, I spend it creating what-if scenarios in my head. Here are just a few of them:

• What if a person driving an Obama bumper sticker-covered car and a person driving a McCain/Palin bumper sticker-covered car crashed? Would they be less forgiving? Would they immediately jump to insults? Stereotypical thought? Would it matter?

• What if I was standing in line with these people I’m in traffic with? Would I yell at them to move when the line moved up like people honk their horns when the light turns green? Or would that guy cutting everyone off, zigzagging through traffic, do that face-to-face?

• What if they could know that I didn’t get around them only because they were driving too slow but more because I don’t like to be behind vehicles that are larger than mine? Would they be less likely to flip me the bird?

I also like to think about how we don’t know where anyone is coming from or where they’re going. They may be speeding by you because a family member is sick. That slow driver may have been on the road for an hour longer than you after a trying day. Maybe they just heard sad news. Maybe they don’t have anywhere to be. No hurry for them. Maybe they’re late for a special event. Not trying to be jerks or idiots like many (me too) often throw out at them, they just are traveling on the road they have before them. Like everyone around them.

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