and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace in your soul.
with all it's sham, drudgery and broken dreams
it's still a beautiful world
be cheerful
strive to be happy
.... bart ehrman - 1927
The problem of road rage is a problem of time. With unlimited time, and patience, road rage goes away. Therefore provided with unlimited time, there is no road rage.
It's funny. Young people, relatively young people, are impatient. Hurried. Brash. They have time but they are rushed. Old people, relatively old people, are patient (for the most part). They're unhurried. Not rushed. Slowly moving from one thing to another, stopping to look at cloud formations and imagine days gone by. They don't have time but they aren't rushed.
One would think that the youth should be lazy and impatient. And the old people would be running around trying to eke the last few years of life.
Back to road rage. So when someone cuts you off, drives slowly, makes an illegal turn, gets in your way the anger you feel that's caused by that obstruction is an issue of time. Given unlimited time, the obstruction wouldn't be an issue. However, now you will be late to pick up that lottery win, the five o'clock deadline having passed, your chance at getting that million dollars gone. Because you were cut off.
Or, even more realistically, you won't be able to get into the door, last minute, just before the beer store closes. And now your evening's ruined because you have no beer. Because you were cut off.
Coffee isn't an option.
Hot chocolate isn't an option.
A chill pill isn't an option.
Ventilation is the only option, so it seems.
But we all know that this shit never ends. As long as you have to deal with people, and it doesn't even have to be on the road, this rage stuff will keep bubbling up inside you. Like a pressure cooker, leaking out from time to time. But eventually, inevitably blowing up.
Admittedly, I've passed other drivers and glanced to see who was driving as I sped past them. Irritated, but not enough angst to shout anything. Let alone gesture.
I'm too calm for that.
But, boy, you should hear what's going on inside my head.
But like Bart Erhman, who wrote the desiderata (in case you were wondering) you should be cheerful and strive to be happy.
Don't waste your time on road rage.
