Thank You

My drives home from university are fantastic because the way that I drive is completely opposite to the direction peak hour traffic goes, or stops, rather. I drive past hundreds and thousands of cars stopped on the opposite lane, their drivers desperate to get home after a long day of work.

It is rare that I see something interesting on those drives, seeing as they are quite repetitive and not much happens on the freeway anyway. I drive in a straight line, the car on cruise control and I slow down and speed back up to one-hundred depending on the people driving in front of me. I have the music blasting in the meanwhile, and the back windows each down an inch. My head tilted, my eyes open three-quarters of the way, my anticipation building to visit my toilet and to lounge on the sofa after a long day of listening to people talk.

When I get off the freeway, and drive down the main road to turn onto the other main road which leads me to my home, nothing interesting really happens either. People attempt to race past me after having been glued to my rear for ten minutes, and still end up caught at the traffic light ahead, having achieved nothing except for wearing their brakes out a little more all to feel as though they are more superior than I, speeding to get to their destinations. Do they not realise that we all have some place to go? Some place to be? 

A couple of days ago, however, something interesting did happen exactly halfway between both main roads. Something I have not witnessed in a while, something I now consider rare: the exchanging of manners. The turn from the first main road onto the next holds a pedestrian crossing, one mostly missed and one I always am sure to remember, seeing as I would be absolutely traumatised if I ever ran another human being over. And I was lucky to stop that day, seeing as the car in front of me zoomed straight through the pedestrian crossing almost wiping out the lady who was about to cross.

Seeing me approach fast because my vision was blocked by that car, she remained stopped at the pedestrian crossing, not daring to cross even though it is her right to and my right to give her way, just in case I myself would run her over. But I came to an immediate halt. Even though it took me long to see her, I managed to spot her and I stopped just in time, not considering the cars behind me but considering this poor woman who looked petrified at the fact that she had almost gotten run over.

Instead of crossing and swearing at me, in the first few steps she took, she turned and faced me and mouthed very clearly the words 'thank you'. I smiled, and nodded. It was a moment that froze for a while, because of how scarce it was. Its infrequency is known to me and it amazed me how she took the time to slowly mouth those two gratifying words, making sure that I caught each one, taking her appreciation a step further. I am sure that the inhabitants of the cars behind me were mouthing a replacement word for 'thank' which ends in the same letter, but I care not.

What I do care for is the lovely display that the lady put on for me in turn for me allowing her her right as a pedestrian on a pedestrian crossing. People need to slow down and place themselves in the shoes of others. We need to be compassionate towards strangers because we are strangers to others too and we would want the same thing.