With earlier sundown and bleaker weather forecasts comes the inevitable: honks upon honks sounding off as if all living hell is about to break out in the streets.
A clashing of heads will either occur between embittered drivers or the noses of their vehicles due to the more-slippery-than-usual roads provided by always-unwelcome rain, snow or that dreaded “sleet” combination. This annual imminency of slippery roads serves us best as a reminder to not become slippery people when it matters most.
When traffic hits a standstill and you feel the urge to fire off a text, don’t. You may not bump into the car in front of you, should your eyes wander the second traffic starts moving. But you may come close, and those driving alongside you had a perfect view of your human impulse— and subsequently won’t let you hear the end of it. Tensions will flare in the last place you want them too: on a dangerous road.
Clichés are called clichés because they are universal truths. Like Dorothy’s journey in The Wizard of the Oz, all anyone wants to do after confronting an unexpected slew of images both though-provoking and terror-inducing is to return home.
We, the driving public of Greater Long Island, share this longing– an absence of magically clickable red heels notwithstanding. So don’t let anyone get in your way of fulfilling this most expected prophecy. This includes drivers of other cars, your regular text recipients who can wait until you’re not in motion for your response to that drop-dead hilarious TikTok, and you.
There is nothing more you can learn about yourself and where your anger can travel to that you haven’t already learned while driving through quote-unquote disaster land before. Knowing this about yourself, also recognize that the anger you detect in someone you just may have cut off is not them at their best. It too is them at their most furious— perhaps even meddling in languish as they peddle home from a job they may not like as much as you like yours. Therefore, don’t poke the bear. Because if you were a self-aware bear, you wouldn’t want anyone to poke you – would you?
On the road, and in general, practice compassion this holiday season and beyond. With the time of selfless giving also comes pitiful weather for us Northeasterners, and the demonstration of some curious driving antic from characters you’re typically driven to instantly villainize.
Stay safe and prosper by using the tomfoolery you witness for laughable conversation or as a way to partake in self-restraint exercises. It’s the easiest thing in the world to blow up— but it takes real strength to keep your calm without internalizing anger that can be detonated later.
In most situations, the advice to heed is “turning the other cheek” or “looking the other way.” In the car with the aforementioned “characters” abound, just look forward and say, “that’s life.”
Upon doing so: if you enjoy the privilege of Siri-activation within your vehicle, let the musings of one Chairman of the Board named Sinatra distract you from the coal-due carmudgeons of the world.
