*The following article is translated from Hebrew so may not be as grammatically correct as my more recent articles. *
The funny way to look at things:
Yesterday I drove in traffic jams on the Peace Road before turning right to Ayalon North in the afternoon (whoever is in the area during these hours knows what it is about lol). To drive because he kind of surprised me (or who knows why) and I moved in. When we stopped at a traffic light, he opened his window and looked at me and I saw he was a little frustrated, he smiled and said cynically: “You played it you did not let me pass” with a look maybe a little resentful.
Now I admit I have a slightly distorted way of seeing things and I like to think anything can be funny (years of psychotherapy will not help my difficult situation), so I laughed and told him I was sorry and that he kind of surprised me, that he was welcome to bypass me after the traffic light. I immediately saw how the look on his face calmed down and changed, which a few moments ago was a serious look passed and turned into a smile that came upon his face and it was wonderful to see. He said thank you, the green light came on and I let him pass.
Now I have to admit, I would not always react like that. We have all heard of the phenomenon called “road rage”. In fact, many times many people are yelling at each other on the road. There’s nothing wrong with that but we should be honest about it is our choice to get upset. I know it’s really tempting to get angry when that feeling builds up towards those people that our minds say are “traveling irresponsibly.” I totally understand this and it’s not easy, in this moment but of all the moments, it’s just the time to stop and ask ourselves “what kind of person do I want to be” and wait before the automatic and seductive response of anger that tends to rise. If the response is automatic, then how much control do we have over our lives? And what anger will help when the person across the street doesn’t hear us anyway and probably doesn’t care? Only we suffer from our own anger in the end. When we stop we have a choice, in a choice we have power, and every time we are chosen differently from our fears and fits of anger, so over time, the temptation to act on them diminishes until it is completely gone.
When the man in the lane next door opened the window, that temptation was no longer here for me- there is always a funnier way to see life through it, we can always choose differently with a simple question: “Who do I want to be”.
