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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Hard to be mindful?

This is going to come off as a tirade about bad drivers, but I get to thinking about frustration, mindfulness, and impatience a lot when I'm driving. I see more than enough thoughtless drivers making rather bad choices when I'm on the road. My path through life has reminded me that I need to be mindful of what I do, whether by thought, word, or deed. While on the road, I try to discipline myself to not think badly about the other folks on the road when they cut me off or tailgate me. It isn't the being cut-off part that truly irks me, but the fact that some of these folks do not think to signal does cause much frustration. Visited by my favourite bugbear, I try my hardest to be mindful. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail. That's life, but I'm also trying to come up with reasons as to why these tailgaters and the like do what they do. I'm not condoning what they do, but I would rather have some reason as to WHY they do it. This keeps the frustration at bay a little longer and calms me a touch.
I admit frankly that I am sometimes impatient at the actions of 'slow drivers'. I do not call people who drive the speed limit 'slow drivers'. I drive the speed limit, and it bugs me when someone's close to bumping me because I'm not going fast enough for their liking. I'd rather they go around me than hang out there, trying to intimidate me. The temptation to come to an abrupt stop and let them crash into me just to press charges on them later floats just beneath the surface of my thoughts. I've never done it, but thought=word=deed. Definitely a bad choice no matter how it comes out. But I digress. I get a little frustrated by folks who DO drive under the speed limit (or at least seem like they do), or folks who are a little too hesistant when they seek to merge with traffic. These people are holding up the flow of traffic and that is what leads to traffic jams and other causes of frustration.
I know that sometimes a guy is late for work, and that's why he speeds. I don't condone it, and I do leave for work early just to make sure that I'm not late. However, I've been known to grumble at someone ahead of me who's being a little pokey even though I have lots of time. There. I've made my confession for the week (or month). I will probably have more to say on the subject of books next time. I'm reading a pretty informative book and should be ready around June 30th... maybe. BYE.

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