Of Being Myself

Do you believe hurt is a vicious cycle? This is happening throughout my driving experience and I came across another one this morning, on the way to work.

The story

This morning on the fast lane, I was following behind middle-aged man’s car and he is not fast, mind you, driving below 60km/mph. I don’t bother to cut him because the traffic light had turned red and a more prominent reason is because I could see that 1/4 part of his car is swerving to the slower lane. So another small car driven by another man tailgating my car overtake both my car and the middle-aged man speeding on but he pulled the emergency brake causing the screeching sound. Why?

From one look, I know he could get through that lane. Why did he then step on the brake? It’s because seemingly that the car in front of me is going further down the slow lane but he’s not. It’s fear of him going to the slow lane, missing the car that wanted to overtake both of us which could cause an accident. That area is a blind spot if you depend too much on your side view mirror.

Out of curiosity I looked for the reaction from both the drivers, and the driver who sped looked at the middle-aged man and point the middle finger. The gesture is not just pointing but full of emotion because I could see he moved his body to the back-passenger side (the middle-aged guy turning left whereby this car stopping at the traffic light). He SO very intended for the other guy to see that he is mad and his mouth could probably utter some vulgar words that could not be heard by the other guy.

So you wondered if the middle finger was delivered in timely manner or not. It did and guess what? The guy also returned the same gesture. It ends when the cars went their separate ways. The all-macho guy that stops at the traffic light next to me seem like an ordinary guy you see from the street. It’s understandable how crazy people drive nowadays, and teaching them a lesson or showing someone else how bad is the driving could probably teach them to be more courteous on the road. But those acts? Middle finger pointing and tailgating the car? Any end result to it? Those acts will not change someone’s else driving patterns, whether you think they ought to know they are at fault or not. If they have a conscious mind, they will know it’s their faults and learned from it. If they don’t, so what? We are only answerable to our own conscience.

I started to recall another incident whereby a motorbike rider pointed middle finger at me on a raining day. What I did? Ignore. Ha ha. Why want to look for trouble? You don’t know the behavior of the road users nowadays. Quite sometime ago I heard of a road bully killed another motorist all pertaining to road usage. Was it worth the kill?

Many many times I encountered silly people driving recklessly and the most I do is just have a look at them and drove away. Of late, I do not even bother to do that anymore. Why? I believe and hope my tolerant reaction will be set as one of the ways to dismiss the rudeness of another road user. More peaceful that way, ey?

A full bloom of courteous cycle that I like about the road users here is that they give ways to the coming cars from the interconnecting junction. Not only that, they said ‘thank you’ to the one that give way by their hands’ gestures (like a high-five sign). However, take note that not every one will do that. To me, it’s worth doing and maintaining. Imagine someone stop doing that. It will be… a vicious cycle and soon the road users here will end up like the one in bigger cities; rude, ignorant, selfish.

We thought we do not affect how the society acts or behaves but little did we know we are part of that society. Whatever we do, whatever we say will eventually mold the society we live in. Trust me once for this.

The illustration of the situation:-

Remark: The green car later swerved to the junction after the red car overtake him finally.