Thought of the Day 01.26.10

When I’m driving, I typically try to thwart aggressive drivers when I can safely do so because I detest the idea of rewarding them. But, after a particularly unpleasant encounter with a tail-gating, cuts-you-off-once-he-gets-in-front-of-you-driver-of-an-oversize-pickup-truck (shock!), I’m trying an experiment. My new ego-crushing course of action is to always yield as much as I possibly can.

This means when people suddenly decide to turn right in front of me without signaling, I’ll just brake instead of passing around them. And I won’t even honk. When someone is coming up behind me on the highway, I’ll pull over one lane to allow them through, even if I’m already going the speed limit. And if someone abuses the merge lane in a construction zone, I’ll give him room to come in ahead of me.

After trying this for only a day so far, I have to admit I’m much calmer and happier. It’s strange, I thought enforcing virtue would make be happy, but it didn’t. And when I simply started giving grace, it did. At least so far. After all, I’ve only been “taking the high road” for a day.

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