No Age for Road Rage

The year has already clawed its way to the third week of January, a side glance and weeks are lost in that black hole called life. New year came and went with no resolutions on the horizon. Except for the reoccurring one; a resolution to have no resolutions. Still, there was one family friend who repeated a resolution that has been a standard one for him and his wife, the resolution not to have any road rage. What a healthy resolution, in my opinion. If you can remain Zen about your time on the road, life will feel so much easier. See yourself as a fellow traffic producer, who clogs up the road space as much as everyone else. Then see yourself as part of the solution, not just the problem. You can be part of both on this account. Give people the benefit of the doubt that they might have a broken indicator, don’t know the road rules, rushing to get that international flight ready for take off, visiting a dying relative in hospital, just lost their job, their girlfriend or the plot. Or in a worse case scenario, all of the above, in which case, really stay out of the way.

The solution is to feel smug about your superior road knowledge and behaviour, shake your head condescendingly, and say to yourself (very important, don’t shout out the car window or mouth any obvious nastiness) “look at these clowns, aren’t they just a funny bunch of amateur drivers, where on earth did they learn to drive”. Just let the whole thing wash over you, water off a duck’s back. Because it’s actually proven, anger doesn’t get you there any faster. It just gets you there angry. And who wants to feel angry.

So next time and the time after that and after that and after that, when you feel the urge to start abusing drivers around you, take a deep breath and just DON’T do it. Turn up the radio, play some good music, listen to an audio book or just have some time to reflect. It’s not going to cost you much, if anything. If you have to be on the road, why make it more unpleasant than it needs to be. Energy comes in limited supply; so don’t waste it on something as pointless as road rage. Open your arms and say to all around you; “welcome to the age of no road rage”.