I pulled up to a stop sign this AM and I looked in my rearview and the guy in the car behind is sitting there, double flipping me off. He was really agitated. You know the style, with his arms moving back and forth. It made me smile. I had no idea what was going on in his mind.
 
Me, I opened my door, twisted around, and leaned out of my car, as there was really no other way to find out what was going on. “Is there something you want to say to me?” On the verge of yelling, “Turn on your fucking turn signal before you come into my lane!”  OMG. This guy was that pissed off about something like that? Sure, I had changed lanes, but I didn’t cut him off or anything. I guess in his mind, I did. But, I didn’t feel that I had. I reiterate because I didn’t like his attitude, “Is there something you want to say to me?” “I just said it!” I continue, “Unless you’re man enough to get out of your car, you really shouldn’t be flipping people off.” He just sat there. I closed the door and drove off.
 
Now, if we can pull this apart a little bit… I should have just let it go. I shouldn’t have said anything. It would have ended there, and all would have been forgotten. But, I have this very bad side to me. You know, like the old saying goes, “You can take the boy out of the jungle, but you can’t take the jungle out of the boy.” When someone comes at me like that, it’s difficult for me not to respond. My bad!
 
The other side of this issue is, and this is just a warning for the unexperienced or a reminded to you street fighter types, you always want to be prepared to get out of your car first if things are about to go down. So, have your door opened. Because if you are trying to get out by the time your attacker is on you, and you stick one leg out of the door, they will probably take control over the door and smash the door against that leg numerous times, which can be really devastating.
 
But, the fact of the fact and the question of the question is, “Why is everybody so angry?” Was what occurred a reason for this guy to completely lose his cool. I mean, there he was, probably a forty-something guy with your standard haircut, driving an SUV.  What is so wrong in his life that he gets that angry over nothing?

And… It is not just him. I have been witnessing this style of random, undirected, and stupid anger happening all over the place. For me, it seemed like a lot of it has been going on since the end of the pandemic. What is so wrong with the life of all these people that they must dwell in a life defend by anger?
 
I drove on. Maybe five minutes later, I was traveling down this street and this girl in her car pops the stop sign on the side street she was coming off of, not even looking before she jams onto the street, almost completely sideswiping me. I had to totally veer out of the way, so she didn’t hit me. Now, for that, there may have been a reason to get mad. But, I just let it go. I could have yelled and screamed and honked. But, what good would that have done?
 
After that, I thought I would play a little game with myself. Let me see how many people do something that I would consider wrong or rude or possible accident-making as I drove to my destination? My count, twenty-seven. Besides the one thing with the girl, who almost hit my car, I got cut off a few times, this one old man pulled in front of me and was driving so slow that it was infuriating, there was even a homeless skater dude who darted out onto PCH, stopped in the middle of the street, got off his skateboard, turned and walked backed to the sidewalk, while giving me a dirty look. Now, if I was going to create a situation that could escalate into a fight over all of those episodes, I would have had to go toe-to-toe many times.
 
I don’t know what it is with people like that guy this morning? I guess it is just that they are so internally angry with their own life and what is going on in it, and all of that kind of stuff, that they wish to lash out behind the safety of the inner-workings of their car. It’s kind of like all those internally angry people on the internet that spread all that negativity and haltered. They're hiding behind a screenname, from who knows where, a place where they can never be found.
 
I think back to this documentary that I saw a few weeks ago about some of the people that made up the hacker group, Anonymous. Some of the stuff that was discussed in that doc was pretty interesting and revealing about their origins and how they came into existence. One of the people interviewed was discussing how so much of what he and they did, in the early stages, was based upon their own internalized anger. And, how it lead to a lot of bad things occuring. I guess that’s the point of all of this…
 
I believe it/this is something that we each need to study in ourselves if we hope to become a better and more positive vehicle for life. If we find ourselves angry and reacting angrily, like the guy did to me today, you really need to dig deep and find out why. You really need to look at this. You really need to study yourself. You really need to know yourself. Because anger leads to nothing good, only damage.
 
If you are angry, figure out the reason why—know your reason why. If you are angry at someone else, whether it is some nothing something like the situation I encountered this morning, or even something bigger, know that it is only you who is angry. Even if there are others who, like you, are angry about the same thing, know that it is only you who can control you; what you feel, and you act, and react. Sure, we all get pissed off, from time to time, about stuff. But, it is only you who can choose what you do with that anger. Think/know, you can turn off that anger if you choose to.
 
Anger is never a good thing. Do not let it guide you down the road to something negative.