Friday, June 21, 2013

A Gentler, kinder Citizen Grouch?

So, the other day at work I had to attend four hours of diversity training.  The instructor was an earnest fellow and did his best to enlighten and entertain us while making us more sensitive and less judgemental which the Missus says I need to be more of and less of to be a better person.

The instructor told us that we shouldn't judge a person and be impatient; the example he used was two cars at a red light:  the light turns green but the car doesn't go.  the second car's driver blows the car's horn to get the first one to go but he doesn't because....there is a child walking in front of the car!  Of course that is why the first car didn't go and that is probably why when this happens to me that  the car in front of me doesn't go when the light turns green until the light is turning yellow and it zips through stranding me at the red light again.  It has nothing to do with the driver texting or whatever.

So, this morning when I was out driving and I was the second car in line at the red light and the right turn green arrow illuminated so we could all make a right turn I remembered what the instructor said and didn't tap the horn because who knows, maybe a small child was walking in front of the guy's truck?   So anyway I waited patiently until the guy behind me blew his car's horn, quite rudely I thought.  But, what do you know, there was no small child in front of the truck, and the driver was texting, or fiddling with his cell phone or something and he made the turn and drove off at high speed!  Image that!  Good thing I wasn't judgemental and impatient like the driver behind me who gave me a dirty look as he swerved from behind me and zoomed past after we all made the turn.  Too bad the cars behind us didn't make the light because the first guy in line was fiddling with his cell phone or texting or something instead of paying attention to what was happening and delayed so long that they didn't get through the light.   At least I  wasn't judgemental.  I even felt more sensitive for a couple minutes.

1 comment:

  1. I actually got honked at today and I thought of you. Obviously the person behind me was very judgmental. Or since it was just a small beep perhaps it was helpful. I had actually started moving already, but they were probably unable to re-evaluate their decision to honk so quickly.

    ReplyDelete