It’s not uncommon at all that I see the most mundane and seemingly random thing – then find myself reminded of something deeper and contemplating the mysteries of life. I know – super boring, right? It’s not actually. It’s fun for me, never knowing when I’ll learn something new and possibly profound. I never tire of seeing the All reflected in every thing. Something like that happened to me this morning on the drive to work. Kinda.
So… I take two interstates to work. Leaving for work just five minutes later or earlier can make ALL the difference in the commute. It can mean the difference between seeing an accident happen right before you and getting stuck in place for an hour while it’s cleaned up, or seeing an accident happen right behind you and wishing them the best as you leave them behind. Regardless of when I find myself leaving for work there are always those on the road that seem to have the understanding that their time means more than anyone else’s or that they are an inherently better driver than anyone else. #RoadRage Today I was nearly finished with my usual morning trek when I saw something happen that struck me as very indicative of today’s human person.
So, I’m nearing my exit. The exit lane is in place for a full mile or more before actually breaking from the interstate proper and that whole time it consists of TWO lanes. Right as the actual off ramps start, the two lanes part ways – one lane (my usual lane) heads south from the exit and the other heads north from the same. I don’t actually have road rage much these days but one thing that gets me close is this part of the commute: People have had well over a mile to get in the lane they need to get into but for any number of reasons seem only take that action at the last possible second. Maybe they don’t want to wait in the line that is forming in their needed lane. Maybe they’re on their phone and not paying attention. Maybe they’ve not had coffee yet and are asleep behind the wheel. Doesn’t matter – whatever – but it invariably (and I mean that) creates a situation of necessarily cutting someone off with far less room than is safe or else taking the wrong lane of the exit. This morning I saw this very thing happen – twice – with two vehicles doing it to each other!
There was a convertible ahead of me in my lane (left lane), and a semi in the other lane (right lane). At the last minute the semi realized he was in the wrong lane and made the unsafest mad dash to change lanes before he had to cross more median than he was already going to have to cross. This made the guy in the convertible super pissed – who at almost the same time decided he too was in the wrong lane and did basically the same thing to someone else in the right lane, which had been done to him by the semi. (Side Note: Knowing what I know about the usual traffic in these two lanes, I think the likely truth here is that the semi actually didn’t realize where he was until it was almost too late and the convertible was probably mostly just trying to cut ahead in a long line of cars.) It was obvious by the horn honking hand gestures and facial cues thrown by the driver of the convertible that he was not at all happy with the semi driver.
This amazed me as indicative of a bigger, very unfortunate truth.
The convertible driver was totally planning to “cheat” other drivers. Absolutely. In his world, his time literally is more valuable and more important than that of all the drivers he was preparing to cut in front of. Or perhaps it was something a little simpler like he was running late and trying to minimize his tardiness. Maybe he didn’t really *want* to be a complete dick, but this time he had to make an exception. Either way, he knew what he was doing and had planned it all along… before the semi interfered.
So essentially he was mad that someone else did something to him which almost ruined his chance to do that thing to others. This is our society today. We’ve not only gotten to the place where we’re fully okay spitting on others to get ahead (which is already a pretty bad place to be as a society), but also that we become angry when someone else spits on us in a way that prevents (or nearly prevents) us from spitting on others. We see this in more than just traffic patterns, too. In the USA, it is prevalent and evident every time our politicians legislate something that they exempt themselves from. Ah the joys of Kali Yuga! What heavy and severe samskara we must carry as a society – such egregore – to have reached a place where this is something so many consciences are fine with.
Aum Shri Mahaganeshaya Namaha | Aum Shanti
Sthapati Samanvayam 