Just Another Car on the Road: Unnecessary Chaos.
I’m telling you—today, traffic is thick. As I scan the landscape of motorists, I see several left-lane drivers trapped in the right lanes due to slow-poking right-lane drivers hogging the left lane. I declare, death by firing squad should be re-employed for these violators of the fast lane.
Okay, “kidding”—I digress.
But you can see the growing frustration building on the road.
Now, this isn’t about me, but I’m trailing an obvious left-lane driver who’s doing everything they can to get around a right-lane poker who’s blocking up the left lane. Let me paint the scene:
There are seven lanes headed southbound. One is an HOV lane—off limits to solo riders. The far-right lanes? Constantly dealing with on-ramp infusions or off-ramp expulsions—not ideal for sustained travel. That leaves five smooth, well-paved passageways for the busy bees of the day.
Five lanes. That’s all we need. If drivers stayed in their rightful lanes, traffic would flow. But no—here comes the loti-da right-lane driver poking along in the left lane, stirring up unnecessary chaos.
Back to the driver I’m trailing—this left-laner is trying their best to maneuver around the poker. Every time they shift to the right, the poker drifts just fast enough to close the gap, forcing the driver back into the bottleneck. I even try to let them cut back in ahead of me, behind the poker. They see another shot and take it. Same result.
I can see it all: the visible frustration, the hand gestures, the pounding on the steering wheel, the desperate motioning to “get the — out of the way.” But the poker? Unmoved. Almost content in the chaos.
Isn’t that just like life?
Sometimes we see the fix. We know how to get around the chaos. But then—there’s that one person, that one situation, comfortable in the disorder and committed to keeping it going.
And so we face choices:
- We can raise our blood pressure trying to fix what isn’t ours to fix.
- We can add to the chaos—maybe even try to run the causer off the road.
- Or… we can observe the show, keep our calm, and trust that we’ll still get where we’re going.
It’s always your choice.
This is Ralph… and I’m just another car on the road.