Asonokirk V 2.0
05-08-2006, 09:55 AM
I was driving during evening rush hour from a friend's house back to my house yesterday, and as usual when I get on the road I know where I'm going, and I know how to get there. This means that I don't need to be forced to speed up or slow down in order to move into the lane I eventually need to be in.
I live in Los Angeles county, and for those of you unfamiliar with driving here, understand that I believe there is no more difficult place to drive in the U.S. I've been to all of the other major cities: Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Cincinnati and elsewhere, and Los Angeles is the primary celestial body, around which all other cities revolve, of automotive insanity. I seriously doubt there is even another civilization in creation that uses automotive technology as badly as Los Angeles. Yes, L.A. is quite probably the most stupefying example of common sense on holiday that exists in our entire universe.
I have seen drivers here do things that curdle the blood and have you believing that homicide can be a legitmate form of expression. Not only are the drivers mostly people who have brought all of their bad driving habits with them from their native lands and other states, they frequently bypass even rudimentary safety concerns in favor of singleness of purpose: getting to wherever the hell it is they are going as fast as they can, without any cognitive or intuitive understanding of the concept that they are sharing a road with others.
So, it was to my pleasant surprise yesterday when I found myself driving behind an SUV, and the SUV driver was negotiating the traffic exactly the same way I would have. A way that allows you to neither be a hindrance nor a danger to the rest of traffic. He stayed in his lane, drove as fast and as slow as necessary, and exhibited common sense courtesy to other vehicles.
I have not seen another driver I felt some form of kinship with as drivers in a very, very, very long time. He (I assume) can't be the only one, so that means I have a nascent and general feeling of hope for the future. It is funny how something simple can effect one emotionally, such that feelings of doom and gloom are replaced with more pleasant and productive thoughts.
All of this means I guess I learned that emotional states are transitory in nature, and that if one is aware of that then one is better able to cope with the range of emotions we all experience throughout our day to day lives.
I live in Los Angeles county, and for those of you unfamiliar with driving here, understand that I believe there is no more difficult place to drive in the U.S. I've been to all of the other major cities: Boston, Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Atlanta, Miami, Denver, Cincinnati and elsewhere, and Los Angeles is the primary celestial body, around which all other cities revolve, of automotive insanity. I seriously doubt there is even another civilization in creation that uses automotive technology as badly as Los Angeles. Yes, L.A. is quite probably the most stupefying example of common sense on holiday that exists in our entire universe.
I have seen drivers here do things that curdle the blood and have you believing that homicide can be a legitmate form of expression. Not only are the drivers mostly people who have brought all of their bad driving habits with them from their native lands and other states, they frequently bypass even rudimentary safety concerns in favor of singleness of purpose: getting to wherever the hell it is they are going as fast as they can, without any cognitive or intuitive understanding of the concept that they are sharing a road with others.
So, it was to my pleasant surprise yesterday when I found myself driving behind an SUV, and the SUV driver was negotiating the traffic exactly the same way I would have. A way that allows you to neither be a hindrance nor a danger to the rest of traffic. He stayed in his lane, drove as fast and as slow as necessary, and exhibited common sense courtesy to other vehicles.
I have not seen another driver I felt some form of kinship with as drivers in a very, very, very long time. He (I assume) can't be the only one, so that means I have a nascent and general feeling of hope for the future. It is funny how something simple can effect one emotionally, such that feelings of doom and gloom are replaced with more pleasant and productive thoughts.
All of this means I guess I learned that emotional states are transitory in nature, and that if one is aware of that then one is better able to cope with the range of emotions we all experience throughout our day to day lives.