In All Reality

I sat there drumming my fingers on the wheel. The sunlight glinted over the horizon with the last vestiges of afternoon light, filtered judiciously through my sunglasses. I was doing my best to burn holes through the lenses, my features formed into a glare meant to set the occupant of the car in front of me ablaze.

Six inches. Six inches is all they needed to move over to the left to let me have enough space to make a desperately needed right turn and set me trundling merrily on home toward the leftover chili that was (I’m certain) eagerly awaiting my patronage. I had just finished an hour-long workout at the gym after a gloomy Monday at work, and I just wanted to go home. Chili. Water. Sitting. Six inches.

The occupant – I won’t mention age or gender – sat blissfully unaware of the world outside, concentrating instead on something incredibly interesting on their cellphone. At times like this I try and dissect my anger, to attempt to put reasoning behind my feelings and determine if they are justified or not. I quickly determined in this case that they were, namely because I always make sure the people behind me have room to turn if the road permits it. This got me thinking about why I always make the effort to be aware of my surroundings, accommodate people as best I can, and generally try not to be a total idiot or a jackass.

I think it stems from an incident when I was very young. To be frank, I can’t remember how old I was or where the event took place. However, I distinctly recall being in a very crowded environment (possibly a mall or Wal-Mart) bumbling around in front of people who were trying to get from point A to point B when my dad grabbed me by my shoulders, spun me around, and very loudly and succinctly declared “PAY ATTENTION”.

This always stuck with me, and I think the world would be a better place if more people remembered that direction. I spend a significant portion of my mental capabilities in paying attention to the world around me, and making sure that I help out when I can or at the very least avoid being an obstacle. I try and bring this into all of my activities, whether it’s checking behind me to see if I need to hold the door for someone entering the locker room at the gym, planning, designing, and coding my projects so that people after me will be able to handle them, or (yes) making sure that the person behind me who desperately wants to get home after a tiring day of drudgery has room to turn.

The typical mode of human thought is: I am all. I am the most important thing. Others should be courteous to me. It takes effort to look outside yourself and see if there is something you can do to make life just a bit easier for someone else, which is probably why most people don’t do it. It’s infuriatingly simple to do, especially considering that you don’t have to go out of your way for it – you’re already going to stand at the printer for 20 minutes while your 700 page report prints; why not let the poor chap behind you with five copies go first?

Take a little extra time and mentally remove yourself from the picture in favor of examining your actions from the point of others – specifically, the inconvenience you’re probably causing them. With any luck, you might end up behind someone who ticks the same way you do and you’ll make it home five minutes early.