Relationship Help:Can you sow peace and focus on getting ahead of others?
Competitive driving? Competing while commuting? That seems to be the name of the game each day as I travel to my office. You likely experience it wherever you are. I'm sure it is not limited to cars and trucks and SUV's. Likely the same things is truly of tuk-tuks, motorcyles and camels, too.
People like to get ahead of each other. Why is that?
Here is sunny San Diego, California, we have to depend on our freeways. There are very few other roads that can get us where we want to go through canyons, over lakes and around mountains.
Today€"an unfortunately typical day on the road€"I was stopped at a freeway onramp, waiting for the light to turn green. Just as it did and I proceeded onto the highway, a big white pickup truck ignored the requirements of the HOV lane, ignored the light there, and shot past both me and the car in front of me. I instinctively hit the horn. He waved in his rear view mirror and continued on at great speed.
You've likely experienced this phenomena: you see a green light and accelerate to cross the road. Seemingly, the driver waiting in the lane next to you takes your leaving the stop as a personal affront to his or her slower reflexes or preoccupation with the cell phone. The response: to accelerate past you and pull in front of you just in time to be caught by the next red light.
Or, you've been involved in the great Lane Change Wars. It seems that the extra ten or twenty seconds someone gains on you by passing you is a matter of life or death to them. Unfortunately, such behavior has often been life or death. Too frequently, death.
Why do we play out our insecurities on the highways? Why are reflex speed and acceleration seen as indications of moral superiority and/or the opportunity or need to compete? What are we really doing out there?
Driving is an opportunities to practice sowing peace. My California license plate is SOWPEAC. If I were to engage in this mindless competitive driving free-for-all€"and, believe me, I'm often tempted, I would be in direct contradiction of my license plate. I invite you to mentally share my license plate so that we can all remind ourselves that the highways and byways we're driving on are a great metaphor for the highways and byways we live.
Competing while commuting? We cannot simultaneously sow peace and focus on getting ahead of someone else, on the road or in our daily relationships. Let's use our driving as a practice field to teach ourselves to sow peace everywhere!
People like to get ahead of each other. Why is that?
Here is sunny San Diego, California, we have to depend on our freeways. There are very few other roads that can get us where we want to go through canyons, over lakes and around mountains.
Today€"an unfortunately typical day on the road€"I was stopped at a freeway onramp, waiting for the light to turn green. Just as it did and I proceeded onto the highway, a big white pickup truck ignored the requirements of the HOV lane, ignored the light there, and shot past both me and the car in front of me. I instinctively hit the horn. He waved in his rear view mirror and continued on at great speed.
You've likely experienced this phenomena: you see a green light and accelerate to cross the road. Seemingly, the driver waiting in the lane next to you takes your leaving the stop as a personal affront to his or her slower reflexes or preoccupation with the cell phone. The response: to accelerate past you and pull in front of you just in time to be caught by the next red light.
Or, you've been involved in the great Lane Change Wars. It seems that the extra ten or twenty seconds someone gains on you by passing you is a matter of life or death to them. Unfortunately, such behavior has often been life or death. Too frequently, death.
Why do we play out our insecurities on the highways? Why are reflex speed and acceleration seen as indications of moral superiority and/or the opportunity or need to compete? What are we really doing out there?
Driving is an opportunities to practice sowing peace. My California license plate is SOWPEAC. If I were to engage in this mindless competitive driving free-for-all€"and, believe me, I'm often tempted, I would be in direct contradiction of my license plate. I invite you to mentally share my license plate so that we can all remind ourselves that the highways and byways we're driving on are a great metaphor for the highways and byways we live.
Competing while commuting? We cannot simultaneously sow peace and focus on getting ahead of someone else, on the road or in our daily relationships. Let's use our driving as a practice field to teach ourselves to sow peace everywhere!