Rolling Through The Middle

The wonderful thing about growing older is that you finally gain the ability to put the proper perspective on things. At a certain point you have enough life experience to realise how trivial some actions are in the grand scheme of things and stop treating every situation with equal importance. Not everything is a national tragedy. For example, if you lose your new hat at age 8 it's a big deal because it's pretty much your most valuable possession. By 15 you know you can buy another hat and at 31 you're too worried that excessive hat wearing may cause baldness to even walk into a Lids. Over time you just figure out what really matters and what really doesn't.

All that being said, there are some actions other people do which I am never going to stop being pissed off by. (If you've read this blog for more than a month you already know that.) Chief among them are people who cut in line. I can't stand people who think that they are somehow more important than the rest of us or that their time is more valuable. This is especially annoying on the road. I firmly believe the people who stay in a lane that we can all see will be closed in a quarter mile just so they can get ahead of those one or two extra cars are the cause of most traffic jams because they end up making everyone slow down more than they should. If they merged over when they first saw the "Lane Closed" sign like the rest of us we could continue on at a good pace, but instead we have to slow down to let them in. Subsequently, I think they should have their licenses suspended.

But, today I saw the worst traffic-cutting offender of all. While waiting at a stoplight I saw a motorcycle rider in my sideview mirror coming up between the two lanes of stopped cars. He slowly rolled forward while everyone else was waiting for the light to turn green, until he found himself in front of the first car. Basically, he just skipped over everyone else and was suddenly the first person in line. As dick moves go, this one was pretty high on the list. Now, I enjoy "Gangland" and "Sons of Anarchy" as much as the next guy, so I understand that the big appeal riding a motorcycle is the 'outlaw' feeling that comes with it. As such, a lot of motorcycle riders feel that rules don't apply to them.

However, this was no patched-up Hells Angel on a Harley trying to show "The Man" that his rules didn't matter. This was just a fat guy on a Honda who felt he was too good to be fifth in line. I feel like he was going to be an asshole on the road even if he drove a car. Even worse, everyone just let him get away with it. No one opened their doors, said something or even honked at him. We all just accepted it. (And yes, I'm including myself in this traffic-wide chickening out.) All I can hope is that the next time this guy tries this move the first car in line is a cruiser. Hopefully then he'll learn that just because you can fit between the cars it doesn't mean you are somehow better than them.