Something Silly

I know, two posts in one day is highly unusual. Yet I couldn’t think of a better group with which to share what just happened to me.

This noon hour, loads of thoughts tumbled through my head as I headed to my last errand—the bank. A check I was expecting to find in my mailbox wasn’t there; a change in the way I thought my day would unfold had me mentally juggling all I need to accomplish before tonight; I realized I’d failed to return a phone call I should…

Suddenly, I found myself in the drive through at Jack in the Box. It’s in the same neighborhood as the bank. They both have red in their logo, but honestly, I’d already picked up lunch! I was just so deep in thought I guess I let auto pilot take over (though I seldom go to Jack’s place.) I didn’t realize my mistake until I was blinking at the menu board thinking, “What the Heck!?”

Incredibly shocked, embarrassed and feeling old; I quickly began to back up. A car came through the parking lot toward the drive through. I tried waving her off with one hand out my window as I continued in reverse, but she didn’t notice. And when I finally turned and said out the window, “wait please, I need to back up,” her response was, “do you have to back up?!“, so I think she may have been distracted by something herself. Personally, when I see reverse lights on a vehicle I’m following, I pay attention.

She was furious. And I understood why when I realized that she didn’t know how to drive in reverse. I love reverse driving. I like to think of myself as Mater from Cars. She didn’t, and my necessitating her to be not only put out and delayed from getting her lunch, but also forced into this awkwardness had her visibly peeved. After she ran her vehicle into the curb for the fourth time, I yelled, “Please! I’ll just pull through.” By this time the three cars that had been in front of me were gone. I mumbled to the drive through guy and headed for my real drive through destination at the bank. (Which I found with surprisingly little difficulty once the feeling that I’d lost my mind subsided.)

Remember this: the next time a driver does something stupid or otherwise delays your forward progress through life. Just think, “Hey that could be Mimi!”

I don’t expect you to empathize to the degree that you put yourself in the others shoes, because honestly, I do more mindless things in one day than most people do in a lifetime. Still, you might be more patient if you can remember that your current state of perfection took time, and you used to mess up, too. And I think that kind of care for each other is just what the world needs.

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” —Mother Teresa

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