Allow me to share with you something that annoys me

I know I only write when something bugs me. I'm sorry about that. Some day I'll write about sunshine and happiness and birds chirping and flowers blooming. I promise. But today I have to get something off my chest.

It is a well-known fact among my various friends (and maybe some enemies) that I have a signifant dose of road rage. I'm not proud of that. I'm just being honest about it. Other people and their driving skills (or lack thereof) really get to me.

You'll notice that this is thematically similar to my rants on people who put shopping carts away vs. people who don't and those who slam their seatbacks out of the full upright and locked position and into my knees on a plane. It's similar in that driving well requires that one think of someone else other than oneself for a few seconds of every day. I understand that it's hard for many of us to do this, but I don't feel that we should be getting in a car and driving if we can't turn our own concerns and cell phones and various attention grabbing devices off and pay attention to not killing the people around us. Riiiiight? Why is that hard?

And part of it, the sad part, seems to be that a lot of people just don't know the rules. Who has the right of way in certain situation, what the color yellow means on a stop light, what a green arrow means and how to make sure you don't fall down on the job when you are first in the turning lane, what to do at a four way stop sign (or intersection, as this is Nebraska and often there aren't stop signs). All of these things seem just out of the grasp of most people.

I should disclaimer this by saying that I understand we can't all be perfect all of the time. I'm sure I do jerky stuff here or there while driving. But for the most part, I keep my eyes on the road, don't talk on electronic devices, pay attention to the drivers around me so no one hits me and I don't hit anyone else.

This is why I'm mad. I don't ride bumpers and hope everyone will go 20 miles an hour above the speed limit. I don't chase people down who cut me off and pull a weapon on them at a stop sign. I don't have that kind of road rage. I feel like I have road disbelief. Or road complete shock. My rage comes from being completely dumbfounded at how self-absorbed and completely unaware of everyone else most people seem to be. My rage is more in the form of amazement that there are people who seem to truly believe that the pressing business they have to attend to is more pressing than whatever the person driving near them has, so they'll do what they please---cut someone off, be the 5th person to turn left on a red light, thereby cutting into the other directional green arrow and those patient drivers' chance of getting through the intersection on that cycle of lights. Ahhhh. That's where the expletives come from.

And I apologize to those who've had to ride in my car and have been scared by my sudden outbursts. But I'm here today to suggest that I'm not just mad as a driver, but as a citizen sick of selfish people and their ignorant ways. Driving just highlights the extra selfish and extra ignorant amongst us.