My return to the light!

I’m Back!

It has been a year since I introduced my blog, only posting once. Some blogger, right! I’m certain many “would be” bloggers start with high expectations and then slip off the page, I did. I thought about the blog many times telling myself I needed to get back to it. I had let myself down for not posting. Also, I may have deprived you of my wit, but I suspect you’ll get over it. A whole year went by, and no one rattled my cage for a new post, not once, so I’m sure I wasn’t missed, or maybe I was. The real question is why I didn’t post again. It was simply fear. It is not an easy task to write your thoughts and then share them with the world, no matter how small that world is. It’s scary. When I completed my first post (and I hope you will go back and read it again, or read it for the first time), I sat at my computer, index finger hovering over the enter key waiting for the courage to push it. It took 20 minutes for me to summon enough courage to hit enter. After I hit enter, I waited about a minute to see if anybody had viewed the post. Now that is insecurity at its best, can’t press enter and can’t wait to see who reads it, as if I was going to receive glowing reviews within five minutes of letting the world know I just wrote something. I am proud of what I wrote though, I liked it. I still like it today after reading it numerous times. I discovered that I do have something to offer through my writing. I hope you enjoy it (again) and maybe enjoy what I write this time. My commitment is to continue to write and post. I hope you read, and maybe even comment. But if you don’t that’s fine, the commitment is to write, I leave the rest to you.

My first post talked about the breaking of rules and began a conversation on why we do. My fascination with behavior comes from my work as a safety professional and as a writer. I am an observer. One of the things I like to observe is the driving habits of people. It is the driving force (pardon the pun) behind “A No Turn on Red”. I started to watch how people just disregarded the signs and made a right on red anyway, that was the basis for my first post. In that post I talked about an experience I had where I was at the light and cars started to make the right on red when they weren’t allowed to. When I pulled up to the light and was waiting for it to turn green a driver behind me beeped his horn to nudge me to make the turn. I refused, he beeped again. I dug in, I wasn’t about to move. I didn’t have to. Making a right on red, lawfully, is not a requirement. There is no law that says I must make a right on red. There are laws that say I can’t under certain circumstances. This was one of them. This intersection prohibited a right on red Monday thru Friday from 7:30am to 4:30 pm, and it wasn’t 4:30 yet.

Shakespeare wrote “all the world is a stage and all the men and women merely players,” this being true, meet one of the cast members, “the pusher”, the driver who comes up behind you and rides you until you move. Sometimes he will flash his lights signaling you that it is time to move. You look in your rearview mirror and telepathically tell him to “F” off. This pusher comes in various types. One, “nudger”, who beeps the horn, somewhat politely, letting you know that he is more important than you and you need to move.

Next is the “pest”, he rides right behind you looking for his opening, switching lanes when you do, moving back and forth with you, like a gnat on humid day. You never see his face you just feel the heat of his engine or hear the thumping bass sound pulsating from car’s chassis.

Last is the bully of the road, the “bulldozer”. You can see him coming. You’re cruising a comfortable 68 mph, if anyone does that anymore, and you see the grill of his vehicle getting larger in your rear-view mirror. You’re in the middle lane, a tractor trailer is to your right and a car with out of state plates, is in the left lane humming along at 64 mph, and you have cars in front of you. Your trapped! The “bulldozer” wants to pass you but there is no place to go. You feel his presence closing in on you. You want to tap your breaks but that will only anger him. You look in your rear-view mirror and see his face, he’s looking back at you, grinning like a demon, where is a highway exorcist when you need him. You see an opening to your right and make your move, damn the directional, just move. Horns blare, announcing you’re free. The driving demon rolls down the road seeking his next victim.

You move back to the center-lane, happily on your way, your heartbeat slowed to a livable pace. Then you see him to your left. You want to look, you want to see the face of the demon, but you are afraid to make eye-contact. What if he remembers me and tells his demon friends, what an embarrassment, did you pick your nose. Your hands are at “10 and 2” on the wheel, your eyes move to the left. You need to look. Your head turns. The demon feels you and starts to look right, but then his head lurches forward. His next victim is now in front of him, another out of stater humming along in the left lane at 64 mph.

Our vehicles have become our personal space. Drivers and their cars begin to look like each other, like the old cartoons where the dog and their owners looked alike. The next post will explore just how similar we are to our cars and how important our space is. Until then keep your eye on the demons.