I freely admit I have no patience. If I want something, I want it right then. I hate waiting in line. In fact, I just hate to wait, period.

Sitting in traffic is awful. Especially when you’re doing just that … sitting. Slow, bumper-to-bumper traffic is bad enough. Not moving at all is torture. It’s even worse when car upon car upon car drives right on by, and even though they could give you a break, they don’t.

I really do try to be courteous. If I have the opportunity to let someone get into the line of traffic, I try to do that. I may not let a whole line of people get in, but I can let a car, or two, get in. I’ll admit, there are times I don’t do that, but I honestly do let folks in more than I don’t let them in. And while I’m sitting there because nobody will cut anybody else in line a break, I start thinking about the times I’d stop and let people in. Then, especially if I’ve been sitting about ten minutes, I get real snarly, and I start telling myself that I’ll never let anybody in traffic ever again.

Even as I’m muttering that to myself, I know it’s not true, and I will cut others a break again. It just gets very frustrating to sit and watch fifty cars drive by and not one will cut someone a break. Yes, we’re all busy, and, yes, we all have places we need to be. However, that doesn’t mean we can’t show some kindness.

This afternoon I waited for what seemed forever, and there really were about fifty cars that drove by without letting anybody into traffic. It made me grumpy. It made me vow never to cut someone else a break, after all, what if I did, and it was one of those fifty people who drove by and didn’t give me a break? I sure wouldn’t want to reward their unkindness with kindness would I? And after I finally was able to get into traffic, I did have the opportunity to cut somebody a break (somebody who was not one of the fifty people to drive on by), and I didn’t do it. I was still too busy silently grumbling. The thing is I felt bad after I drove on by without letting this guy in.

So what does all this mean? It goes back to the Golden Rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. It’s not as they do unto you. Whether fifty or a hundred people had driven by without cutting me or anybody else in that long line a break is irrelevant. The point is I’d like for others to cut me a traffic break from time to time. Therefore, even if I’m grumpy because I didn’t get a break, if I have the opportunity to give someone else one, I need to do that.

As I frequently tell my kids and my students, you have to lay down tonight with what you’ve done today, not what someone else has done. In this case, just because all those other drivers were jerks, that doesn’t give me the right to also be a jerk. Since I have no idea who that driver was and cannot apologize to him for my rudeness and since I have confessed it, I’m just going to issue an apology here. I really am sorry that I acted like a jerk and didn’t cut the guy a break.

We all need to keep in mind that how others treat us is really irrelevant when it comes to how we treat others. We simply must do the right thing in regard to others just because it’s the right thing to do. If we do that, when we lay down at night, we’ll sleep much better.