I admit to being emotionally battered and bruised while on my way to work this morning.
I spent Thursday first worrying and fretting about the latest mechanical catastrophe involving my aging car, and then getting way too emotionally involved in the U.S. Senate hearing regarding the Supreme Court nominee.
The world was feeling heavy indeed as I attempted to merge onto the Baltimore Beltway at my usual point of entry at North Point Boulevard. The view in my driver’s-side mirror told me an unusual amount of traffic was coming and I was running out of merge area.
I admit to being one of those people who actually yields to oncoming traffic when facing a yield sign, instead of playing chicken with potentially fatal objects hurdling at me at speeds of 60 miles an hour and faster. I also do not subscribe to the “I’m coming over, knowing you’ll either slow down or move over” theory of driving.
I play by the rules, wait my turn and merge and/or change lanes when and only when it’s safe to do so.
Just when I thought I’d have to come to a complete stop or ease onto the shoulder, the 18-wheeler in the right lane changed lanes to allow me over. I waved, knowing he probably didn’t see me, as I merged.
The trucker driving the Old Dominion Freight truck immediately put on his turn signal to return to the lane he had been in, so I flashed my headlights and waved again. He moved over, flashed his lights twice as witnessed by his rear lights blinking on and off twice, in acknowledgment of my gesture, and we both continued our journeys.
A small gesture, but it made my day. In a world that seems to grow angrier and more hateful by the day, the trucker’s act of kindness lifted a bit of the weight of that hateful world from my shoulders.
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