Don’t Be That Man

I just saw a friend go by. He is really more an acquaintance than a friend. I was sitting at the coffee shop and he was driving by. I noticed him because he was honking at the car in front of him. It was actually a long moment, as he began honking he was to the far left of my vision, and continued all the way as he went to the far right.

I watch people closely, and I saw him. Not judging, Just watching. (At least I think so!) It was illuminating, because I know him well enough and have enough mutual regard that if he happened to look to the side and see I know he would not have been having this interaction with this other driver in this way.

The other driver was going a bit slow. Not super slow, but slow. They were on a one lane street so  my acquaintance could not go by,  he would surge ahead suddenly, stopping before rear-ending the other. He was expressing his complete and total lack of regard for this other person. My acquaintance certainly felt very very right. To me this is a real world example of being so completely right that you are utterly wrong.

I see it often in the world. A person who feels so entitled by their cause, whatever it may be, to behave in a way that social decorum is no longer of concern. Let’s not kid ourselves. Most, if not all of us have been there. But is that a good place for us to be? Is this how we want our society to run? Speed limits exist as guard rails. People drive faster than the speed limit. They are still good to have, and to have everyone, no matter how rich or their place in society have to pay some attention to. 

Social decorum is the same. We have to behave better, no matter what. No matter what the person next to you does, do not let the mindless need to attack the other make you do the same. Do not sell your sanity so cheaply just because the person you are dealing with has lost track of his. Do not be that man.