Traffic Lessons

So, I'm sitting at the corner of a small road, waiting to make a right into two lanes of very busy traffic that moves at 55 miles an hour. Fiona & Rory are in the back seat going along for the ride.

Across from me in the suicide shoot, is a truck waiting to make a left, cross the two lanes of solid traffic, and continue its journey on the road where I wait.

Traffic races by, vroom, vroom vroom, vrrroom! The Santa Fe shimmies from the force of the air surges blasting with each passing vehicle.

After a time, in the lane closest to me, there is a break in the race. I get ready to move out sharply, commanding Fiona, "Fi get down now!" When the car isn't moving, she likes to stand on the door so she can peer out the window. She's learned to get down immediately when the car begins moving as she's tumbled off the seat onto the floor a couple of times.

Do not call PETA or the SPCA on me; I don't have harnesses for them, and I don't care for them or the politically correct way we deal with pets and everything else these days. So, if you want to send me gifts of harnesses for both of them AND come deal with bullheaded Scotties each time I need to go somewhere, great. Otherwise, let's move on with the story.

Just as Fi's butt hits the seat and I start on the gas to make my break in the small opening, a driver in the far lane, seeing the truck waiting in the suicide shoot, does an incredibly nice thing. To create a space for him to start out across the road and without putting on her indicator to signal her decision to change lanes, she darts into my open spot sealing it off, just as I was beginning to pull out.

My breaks slammed on. I stopped in time; the woman doing the incredibly nice thing probably doesn't even know that she almost got T-boned by me. But I sure the hell know it.

And, that's when, with my heart racing, it struck me....

I wonder, how many times when someone was doing something very nice for someone, does another person get unintentionally hurt by the nice act?

Have you ever been supportive of a friend who is having a tiff with a mutual friend, only to have the other friend let you know they feel betrayed or let down by your kindness to the other?

Have you ever decided that you had to attend an event which meant that you had to disappoint another friend? My friend couldn't make it to my wedding because her mother's anniversary party was the same day. And, I thought, "Yeah, it's her Mom but she's had lots of anniversaries and this is my wedding!!" But, I had to be nice about it, not make her feel worse. It didn't hurt me so much as disappoint me, but you get the idea.

And, how many times have you been told, "I didn't know which one to pick. And, I thought you'd understand, but So-in-so would never forgive me if I didn't come to their party so I went there."

Yeah, sometimes the fact that I'm so flippin' easy going and understanding gets on my own nerves.

There's no answer to this musing today. Just that there will be times when you will do something incredibly nice for someone and find out later, that someone else was injured by that kindness.

I think it's the same about many things in life. A political party does this to support that group, and the taxes goes up for everybody...Ouch. Laws are passed to make some part of the population safe, only to have less freedom available in the over all.

And in our own lives, subtle things, not always noticed. Certainly not all that earth shaking such as the case of who gets to see you at a party while another gets to miss you at theirs.... but still...it makes you wonder.

Perhaps that's what we really mean when we say, "No good deed goes unpunished." Perhaps only in heaven can something go well for every single person. It sure doesn't happen here on Earth.

I just know today, some woman I don't know trying to do something nice for someone she didn't know, caused me to almost pee my pants and say some words that haven't fallen out of my mouth in a very long time. And, that's got me thinking.

I can't talk longer...I have to go wash my mouth out with soap and while I'm at it, I might as well change my pants.

Namaste' Till Next Time,
Holly aka Potty Mouth Pee-Pee Pants