Two Wrong Drivers Don’t Make A Right!

If you’re like most of us, driving in traffic is probably high on your “worst places to be” list, am I right?

Of course I am … if you look at most freeways these days, you’d think you were on a freaking Indy 500 racetrack! However, there are three excellent reasons to break away from the pack of unsafe, aggressive drivers who are polluting them. First, when you drive like this, you put yourself and everyone around you in extreme danger. Second, driving aggressively is extremely stressful (your blood pressure goes way up, your grip on the wheel tightens, your eyes become strained, and your thoughts are spinning wildly out of control). Finally, you end up saving no time at all in getting where you want to go … this is the truth, so what’s the point?!

Here’s a good example: last Christmas, I was driving home from Philadelphia to Boca Raton. Traffic was moving at a decent pace, even though the roads were packed due to the holidays … however, there was either snow, sleet, or heavy rains almost the whole way down, which made driving safely a top priority. Well, right around the “Savannah, Georgia” exit I noticed this very aggressive, pissed off driver weaving in and out of the lanes, while speeding up and slowing down constantly in a heavy downpour, which was hard to see through (note: there was a New York License plate on this car … go figure) . Clearly, this jerk-off was in a hurry to get nowhere fast … so, for the most part I remained in the same lane, while listening to some relaxing music and my wife telling me that two wrongs don’t make a right (note: she was right). My plan was to make it safely back down to Boca, since I had over six more hours to go, and this is what I did!

To make a long story short, as I was pulling off onto my exit (which was less than two miles from home) I noticed this same aggressive driver, in his smug, entry-level BMW (which, by the way, was probably a lease vehicle … there’s a lot of phonies around here) was actually in my rearview mirror. Well, that was up until he whipped right on by down the highway. Without realizing it, I had actually arrived in Boca ahead of him … woo hoo! All of his weaving, rapid accelerations, and putting other families and himself at risk had earned him nothing except perhaps some high blood pressure and a great deal of wear and tear on his rented vehicle. In the strange world of averages, we have driven at the same speed for over six hours. Pretty weird, huh?

Well, to be honest with you …when you make the conscious decision to become a less aggressive driver, like my wife has preached to me all along (note: she always drives in the slow lane) you actually start using your driving time as a time to relax (who would have known?). Now, I have started to see my driving as not only a way of getting somewhere, but also as a chance to breathe and to reflect on my daily trials and tribulations … it actually works, as I have recently found out! So, rather than tensing up every time you get behind the wheel, why not see it as a place to relax instead? It’s so much better for you, health-wise … and any doctor worth his salt will probably tell you the same exact thing. By the time you’ve reached your destination you’ll feel much more relaxed than you did before you even got into the car, which is honestly a great feeling!

Think about this, before I go: during the course of your lifetime, you’re probably going to spend a great deal of your time driving somewhere (this is just the price we have to pay, by living the lifestyle that we have chosen) so you can either spend this time being frustrated and angry, or you can use it wisely, and relax while you’re doing it! If you do the latter, you become a much more relaxed person in life … and also less of a jerk like that Boca a@#$%le! He’ll learn eventually, I hope!