I believe that as life gets faster and we get busier, we begin to run on auto pilot. We do what we do without really noticing what it is we are doing, let alone why? I get a lot of thoughts from watching people drive, as you already know. I think that it has gotten so automatic that people rush, they even rush when there is no need to. It has become just the way it is. I see people driving as if they were on the way to the emergency room, then see them turn into the mall. What's the hurry? Is the mall going to run out of clothes soon? I see people standing in line being aggravated because it is not moving fast enough. I have seen people driving on a 25 MPH street with double yellow lines (that means "no passing") and pass a car right in the intersection to do 40 MPH. Good grief! They just broke several traffic laws.
It seems we act without really thinking about what we are doing, about what we are telling others about ourselves nor about what kind of impact our actions have on those around us.
Do we get cranky with the cashier because they are unkind or because we have lost the ability to care about someone else's day? Do we break traffic laws because there is some emergency we are getting to or because we have basically allowed ourselves to lose control of our driving?
I was in the grocery store the other day. I always walk past the rows of grocery carts which are always tucked into each other in a neat and orderly fasion. Yesterday, I walked in and there were about 8 carts scattered around the area that they were stored. One person, feeling they were either too busy or too important to slip their cart into the row just shoved it at the stored carts. Here is what is just dumb. One person does something stupid and eight other people now accept that they need not bother to do the right thing either. I have seen it with stop signs. One goof runs the stop sign and now everyone runs stop signs.
Why is it that society seems to reach to a lower quality of living because someone else does it rather than sticking to what we think is the right thing to do? As I watch common every day attitudes and behaviors, they seem to digress more and more all the time.
Why are we crabbier and less kind to people we interact with? Why do we race around as if life depended on our getting ahead of that one car in front of us? Why do we not take the time to pick the trash we dropped in the parking lot? Why is it we yell at our kids when they are just being kids? Why do we scream at the dog as if he understood english? Why is it we can't be bothered to hold the door for the older gentleman behind us? Why have we become less and less tolerant of others?
I imagine you can think of a lot more topics to consider. Maybe take a couple of minutes and think about some things that have become automatic in your life that may leave those watching you think a little less of you than you would like. People do see us at our best and at out worst. What kind of impression do you leave? What would your kids think of your behavior? What we would think of our kids if they acted like we do when we don't behave well?
I am not pointing a finger nor am I making accusations. What I am saying is that so many of us run on automatic that we really don't notice how we treat others let alone know what motivates us to behave poorly. For most of us, there is room to be better and we should be aware of what we do and why.
If we truly love our fellow man, would we treat them in a negative way, no matter what? No, I don't think so. When we really love one another, we become extremely tolerant of things that could be aggravating. We see others in a different light. We may consider what a bad day they might be having rather than seeing ourselves as the priority.
Maybe we cannot let busyness, anger, frustration, self centeredness, aggressiveness, judgmentalism, or such things motivate our behaviors. Maybe we can slow down a tad and be conscious of how we treat one another and why. Maybe we can realize we are all in this thing called "life" together and act accordingly. Maybe we can even strive to be motivated by our love for God and our love for our neighbor. Those two commands are said to be the greatest of all by Jesus Christ. Maybe that should be our motivation because it is just not getting prettier out there and the world we create by our behavior is the world we and our children and our children's children will have to live in. What kind of world are you helping to build for them? What behavioral legacy are you leaving behind?
Maybe we can all go out there and live our lives loving and caring for those around us. Maybe we can all enjoy a more enjoyable life and begin to build a little bit better world. I know I can help with that by striving to love better and I will.