Sometimes I have to ask myself, what is wrong with people? That being, humans. But that tends to take you down a slippery slope. How about this example. Last Thursday, I am pulling out of my parking garage to head to the office. It is a quick right turn and you are at a stop sign to pull out. I look right, I see an older lady about 10-15 feet away on the sidewalk walking towards my car...
I look left, no cars. I look right again, getting ready to pull out, and this lady is suddenly giving me the double middle finger lunging toward my car. It is 7:30am, and I have not even had my first coffee. Yet, this lady has the energy to cause a problem out of nothing because if she was ten feet closer, I would have run into her. Well, if she was ten feet closer, I would have stopped to let her cross the street. As I looked this lady in the eyes giving me the double middle finger at 7:30am, I realized I had a few options. The option I chose, was to roll my window down, wave, give a huge smile, and say have a great day; before quickly pulling away.
Point being, we all have options. The lady giving me the double middle finger had options. Options of whatever put her in the state of mind to do what she did that morning. I had options. Luckily, choosing the right one in my opinion.
This may be a glimpse of a very small situation. However, it is all the small situations added up, that can impact real change. How people, human beings, handle the small situations, like the one above, can change the nation and the world. We all think we are too small to have an impact. That could not be more of an excuse. We can impact real change; by always extending our hand to our fellow American, or fellow human being. Where is the love? Extend your hand, bring everyone to the table. Have solutions-based dialogue.
How you do anything, is how you do everything.
-VC
In our lives we are faced with many situations that impact our next move, sometimes consciously sometimes not. The woman you encountered may have been faced with a challenging morning. Maybe a problem at work, a sick child or even a death in the family. So yes she had a choice. She chose to deflect her state of mind onto you. Consciously or not it was still a choice.
Either way, if we pause before making a choice and think about how it could effect others we might make better ones. Although it’s a stretch to think this is possible, your choice is proof it could be possible. Had you chose differently how would it have effected your next move.…