Earlier in
the week after a particularly haphazard day, I gave in to an urge to indulge
and so drove myself around the corner to the shops to collect some chocolate and
ice-cream.
I swung
casually into the car-park, enjoying the peacefulness of being child-free for
the first time that day. Ahh, it was
bliss! I’d left hubby at home to deal with the after- dinner, before- bedtime
chaos of homework, showers, teeth, pyjamas, story book. So naturally, I was in no hurry to return ;)
I slowed down to allow a pedestrian to cross
at the zebra crossing and then graciously allowed a fellow driver to make a
right turn in front of me to exit the car-park.
However, it
became apparent my agreeableness was not appreciated by the obnoxious driver of
the black Mazda that had zipped up out of nowhere and was now sitting directly
on my tail. The wild-eyed crazy woman behind the wheel began honking her horn
at me and waving her arms, like an angry goose pitching a fit.
| Picture retrieved from Google. |
My mood
quickly soured. “That ignorant, impatient twit”, I thought to myself, or
something along those lines, can’t quite remember exact wording.
I pulled
into a park spot and took a breath to regain my Zen. However, the dying flames of self-righteous
indignation quickly began to flare again and were threatening to escalate into
an inferno of furious anger, Samuel Jackson style, when I observed the psycho
pulling into the car space directly diagonal to me.
| Picture retrieved from Google. |
We both
jumped out of our cars and turned towards each other like a Mexican stand-off.
Then the woman ran at me.
“Oh my freaking God, where are the toilets
here!! I’m busting!!” she cried, jumping up and down.
Well, if
that didn’t throw a wet blanket over the flames of fury! The anger drained from
my body as I pointed out the direction of the lavatories to the desperate woman.
I watched as
she ran across the road holding herself, legs together, before snorting with laughter. Then I silently thanked the passing stranger who had stirred
up such ugly feelings of anger within me, for reminding me to never assume the
intention behind people’s actions.
Sometimes we get ourselves so worked up in life over the actions of
another human being, making up narratives in our minds as to why they do the
things they do, when in fact their behaviour has nothing to do with us at all and everything to do with them and
where they are at.
So the moral of the story is, never
assume straight away that someone is a skid mark on the underpants of society.
They may in fact just have gastro and simply trying to avoid skid marks of their own.
