I Won, but the Loser Doesn’t Know

Today, during a drive to meet a valued client, I was behind an idiot fellow driving a maroon truck. The driver in front of him wasn’t moving swiftly, which I understand is cause for frustration. However, this idiot wasn’t content with handling his frustration internally.

The maroon-truck-driving idiot slammed on his horn and did not lay off until the driver ahead of him turned off the street, probably in fear rather than an actual need to go that direction. As the slow driver turned, the idiot swerved into oncoming traffic to speed around the vehicle that was apparently taking too long to turn, honked the horn again and sped off.

Almost immediately, the idiot was honking at another car in front of it. I was not breaking the laws of the land and therefore don’t know what happened between those two (they were too far ahead of me), but when I reached the stop light, only one was there: the maroon idiot.

All his honking and speeding accomplished nothing.

That’s when we had our fight. He was in the right-or-straight lane, waiting to go straight. I was behind him, waiting to turn right. Obviously, I wanted to lay on my horn until he got out of my way so I could get where I needed. And I nearly did. A number of times.

But, as we all remember from elementary school, the real winner of the fight is the one who walks away. I chose to walk away (metaphorically, of course). I figured the satisfaction of being better than this horrible person would more than make up for the lack of laying on the horn in what would’ve been a glorious event. At least one of us should show society a decent example, and that person had to be me.

It was nice to win, but I doubt my actual outcome felt better than the one I almost enacted.

Moral for kids: the winner of the fight is the one who walks away. Also, the winner of the fight is the one who spends the rest of the day thinking he shouldn’t have walked away.