We've all had the experience. Someone we know and trust does something stupid. We consider the action and say, "He should get what he deserves." It's tempting and somewhat satisfying to wish for idiotic acts to be punished swiftly and fairly. But is it really what we want?

I had the opportunity to think about this question as I drove to Bountiful yesterday. I was on my way to the freeway along an onramp with a blind curve. As I accelerated from 50 MPH to 65 MPH I approached this blind corner. The scene unfolding before me didn't make sense. It took my brain a couple of seconds to register what I was seeing.

First, I saw a brake light. Then there was a back-up light. Then there were two back-up lights. Then I realized these lights were attached to a little red car. Then I realized that this little red car was backing right at me. Several things happened within a split second of this realization. I hit the brakes hard, I swerved to the right and I started honking my horn.

Four heads jerked hard to look toward the sound. The driver's eyes met mine. A fresh-faced teenage boy was staring at me. At first he had this empty "what?" look on his face. Quickly it turned to a "what's your problem?" glare in his eyes.

It all ended quickly as I slipped past him. I was shaken, thinking that some silly maneuver could have cost all of us dearly. Had these events taken place just a moment or two later or had I not been paying adequate attention the result could have been much different, and bad. I also realized that had we collided it would not have been my fault. The teenager was clearly in the wrong.

I wondered about that as I drove away. I made a decision, somewhat subconsciously, to not make this person pay for his foolishness. That's when it hit me. Every day I have the opportunity to choose. I can extract the full measure for dumb actions or I can just let it go.

It seems that letting things go is a far better decision. Perhaps it would be best to help others avoid these lapses of judgment. I don't have any good ideas about how to make that happen. At least I have this one hope. Perhaps, when I do stupid things, someone will be there who is willing to cut me some slack. Yeah, that would be nice.........
8:10:26 PM    comment []