[As soon as this post went live, my observant uncle (Hi, DK!) made me aware that some people might think I'm talking about passing in the breakdown lane of a road that has only one lane in each direction. I would NEVER do that. The essay that follows is about multi-lane roads. Please, be safe out there.]
If you've been taught to drive correctly, you might have read the title of this post and thought, "That's it. I can no longer support Carita by reading her blog, being her friend, or considering her a decent human being." Don't worry, I'm not advocating a complete overthrow of all that makes sense in the world. I do NOT think that people who drive below the speed limit should hang out on the left or even in the center lane.
That said, on a recent road trip, I noticed that I was directly behind a slow driver who was camped happily in the left lane. I waited behind him for a while, assuming that he would notice me and do the humane, the civilized, the appropriate thing, which would be to move to the right so that I could pass. He did not. Finally, I decided that rather than work myself into a lather, I would pass him on the right. And as I did, I even resisted the urge to give him a "You sub-par driver" sideways look.
I decided that maybe he had a reason for not paying attention to what was going on around him and therefore not following one of the most basic rules of the roadway decency. Maybe he was having a bad day. Maybe he was still learning to drive, so changing lanes was scary for him. Or maybe he wasn't lucky enough to have learned the rules of the road. In fact, though he was slowing down the flow of traffic, he wasn't causing any lasting harm. So I got over my self-righteous indignation and went around him.
And nothing bad happened to either of us. Sometimes I get so stuck in my ideas about being right that I forget to get over myself and do what makes sense. While I don't plan to make a habit of passing on the right or of driving slowly on the left, I do think that reading the situation and finding the path that makes sense is a happier way to live than adhering strictly to my beliefs no matter what's going on around me.
What do you think? Please share your responses in the comments.
YES! This applies to so many things. It’s so easy to get worked up at someone else doing something wrong that you don’t realize that you might have an easy way to fix your own situation, even when you can’t fix them.
I was reading Ann Patchett’s Whistler today, and a character who’s old and sick decides, “I’m never going to be angry at anyone ever again”(246). What a great decision to make! Rather than spend my energy fuming in the left lane waiting for the person ahead of me to get a clue, I can do what I need to do to fix my situation.
I’ve called the authorities.
hehehe