Road Rage – a path to self-destruction and possibly ending sitting the night in jail

Road Rage – a path to self-destruction and possibly ending sitting the night in jail

Traffic congestion may be a contributing factor to driver frustration and road rage. Road rage is aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other road vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Today, unlike the days of yesteryear, aggressive drivers have turned our city streets and freeways into free-for-all battle zones or gladiator pits. 

One driver pitted against the other for reasons beyond common sense. Armed with guns, and pepper spray to eggs and water bottles, there is no holds barred for this new kind of road rage as every driver involved delves themselves into a ‘high-noon’ situation with other drivers and confront cops aggressively when they try to intervene or restore order.

An epidemic growing still into pandemic proportions, the rage seems to becoming so serious, laws are being changed to address these destructive behaviors. Every year the rate of incidents climb us as is the count of injuries, assaults and homicides related to such dangerous behaviors out in our streets and freeways. However, this fury has shown no signs of subsiding or slowing down any time soon. 

Road rage can be any encounter between drivers versus other drivers but is extended to passengers, mere spectators, bicyclist, and other individuals who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Road rage can be a moving violation, a parking lot incident where the vehicle is vandalized or damaged, a stalking situation where someone is followed home and then victimized or assaulted. 

The list is too long to cover all but the fact remains, road rage is happening and its real. Renamed from the tag given previously, ‘aggressive driving’ no longer takes the perception by the media as ‘road rage’ does. What has appeared is an attitude of being a ‘vigilante behavior’ to make a wrong right with another wrongful act with all involved being wrong in the letter of the law. 

This madness to inflict some kind of retribution or punish others is driving is growing at exponentially magnitudes but AAA or the highway agencies in various states are not tracking this as a data report. Evidence shows self-destructiveness in many ways of losing self-control and usually starts with ‘hand signals or gestures’ that escalates into physical violence or even shooting at each other. 

This kind of ‘intimidatory driving’ starts as verbal abuse and escalates quickly. Attacks on people and vehicles are being reported whereas before, none such events were logged down by any public safety agency or AAA support groups. Some conflicts are caused by erratic or reckless driving given the offended party an opportunity to express their dislike for these driving practices by flipping the ‘bird’ to another person.

Secondly, there could be an encounter of the worse kind, when decals, signs or other visible preference over a sport or team initiates conflict while on the road. Lane changing, speeding and excessive tailgating all contribute to the anger. 

This appears to be more of a personality trait than a crime but nevertheless, people are getting hurt or killed by people motivated to be aggressive and inflict some kind of punishment to the others. 

Expressing anger while behind the steering wheel is normal. What is abnormal is when it goes beyond the screaming, yelling, muttering or stuttering to tell the other person what they are thinking and initiating more aggressive behaviors. It comes down to lack of proper social functioning skills and lack of coping with the environment they are driving in. 

Wikipedia identifies several issues that manifest road rage. They are:

·         Generally aggressive driving, including sudden acceleration, braking, and close tailgating

·         Cutting others off in a lane, or deliberately preventing someone from merging

·         Chasing other motorists

·         Flashing lights and/or sounding the horn excessively

·         Yelling or exhibiting disruptive behavior at roadside establishments

·         Driving at high speeds in the median of a highway to terrify drivers in both lanes\

·         Rude gestures (such as "the finger"

·         Shouting verbal abuses or threats or intentionally causing a collision between vehicles

·         Hitting other vehicles or hitting or assaulting other motorists, their passengers, cyclists, or pedestrians

·         Exiting the car to attempt to start confrontations, including striking other vehicles with an object

·         Threatening to use or using a firearm or other deadly weapon

·         Throwing projectiles from a moving vehicle with the intent of damaging other vehicle

Sometimes this lack of control is described as "basically a maladaptive reaction to an identifiable psycho-social stressor that interferes with social functioning which may include sharing the roadway with another driver. One may feel misunderstood and claim dominance other the other by expressing anger at another driver. 

Road rage can be controlled. Aggressive drivers are under better control than drunk drivers and thus have the capabilities to correct their behaviors before it inflicts too much damage or calculated embarrassment or humiliation. It is fair to say that road rage has become our number one fear rather than drunk drivers on the streets. 

It is also likely true that there is now an epidemic out there of running red lights creating much of the conflict. Installing red light cameras can solve some of these problems but the others are left up between driver versus drivers as they compete for their share of the roadway they are occupying and taking control of one way or another.

The Lonely Tree – Waiting at Heaven’s Door

The Lonely Tree – Waiting at Heaven’s Door

Surrounded by artificial flowers and plastic wreaths, the lonely tree survives each year the pain and sorrow it sees every day they come to the cemetery to visit they relatives who passed away. It stands next to the headstones that pave the way to heaven’s door.

Stoned scripts recall the names of memories once alive and filled with stories that could bend some ears as buried here underneath the ground, are soldiers, villains, and heroes all buried here together without any prejudice, bias or hatred sworn. 

The little red white and blue with starts and stripes flags show mass respect, the words echo their lives and the weather beats their plots. Daily rain or snow, the lonely tree watches from afar, the coming of the horde of black carriages in a funeral advance, arriving with another casket, another soul and another body to bury once more. 

This tree, standing there like a guard at the Unknown Soldier’s tomb, never succumbs to the pressures around it, as its roots grab a hold of more dirt than some, as it vigilantly witnesses and watches the dead and the living come.It knows respect, it has humility and it has honor. Each day it lives it stands tall and brings us closer to heaven’s door. The man in the black hat, the lady dressed in black, the flag softly folded, the widow’s cry and the children’s tear, are all forever noted throughout the years. 

This lonely tree, it is not human as it cannot cry, the reason why it was planted here amidst the other dead is something we don’t know why. But it stands to reason that this tree, although it seems to be standing alone, is part of the scenery when men, women and children, come home to see their maker’s door and sit on heaven’s floor. 

So you see, this tree is seldom lonely for there is a death at least once a day as the mortuary doors stay open day and night. There is so much black, so much darkness but rarely, does the tree sense any level of fear or fright each day and every night.

Instead it finds solace, a genuine peaceful feeling, with a billion stars above and shooting stars flying by in the vast universe we call the sky. Some days cloudy, some days clear and standing there every minute, every second and every day of the year.

Standing there strong and unbreakably tense, within the world’s madness, it finds a strange tranquility, unexplained as it is, for humans die each and every day and this tree will live forever or until they pull its roots out of the ground to make room for another door.

A less traveled road

A less traveled road 

We all know how to avoid making decisions and walking away from our problems. Confrontation is such an ugly thing to deal with thus we solve our problems by walking away and never looking back. 

Unfortunately, walking away has a very high price you pay. It doesn’t do anything for your self-understanding and destroys self-esteem, confidence and changes in your life. In fact, it does quite the opposite and hampers your ability to grow mentally and spiritually.

Thus it is best to confront and solve your problems so you can travel the road less traveled. Walking alone can be beneficial as is walking in a group if that group understands you and has your best interest in mind. 

Walking the road less traveled will mean confrontation and suffering is at hand and those near you, must try to be patient and understand you. This relationship must be reciprocal and beneficial to grow positivity and better spirits. 

Compatibility, independency, and learning to distinguish the differences is important is solving our problems. Self-understanding is the key to recognizing your own abilities and power. It must allow you to deal with and understand your own ideas, vision and insights or dreams. It is all relevant to your personal, mental and spiritual growth.

Learning how to deal with blame, forgiveness, love and self-love are important elements of your life. Knowing yourself is more important than we think it is as it is the core value of who we are. It is an instrumental and fundamental part of growing up so we need to do it gradually and deliberately pay attention to how we solve our problems. 

Confrontation, self-discovery and a close examination of our complexities in our own lives gives us the tools to be better decision makers down the road. This journey is an enlightening opportunity to grow in belief and in spirit. 

Believe in yourself but be prepared for the paradoxical nature of your belief and your life’s experiences. Nothing is what it appears to be and what appears to be may not be the reality you are facing. Know the differences between good and evil, know which road to take. The high road can lead to overcoming your own narcissism and putting your perspectives in focus as you deal with matters of important all your life. 

Coming to terms with life and death, love and sadness, loved and being love, hate and being hated, is living with a paradox we all have to face sometime in our lives. The road less traveled deals with choices we make every day personally and professionally. The ethical choices we make affects you, me and all those around you. 

Life’s choices on making productive patterns work instead of destruction in your life. Avoid the patterns of self-absorption, callousness, manipulation and becoming too materialistic in nature you become entrenched in a road that demonstrated routine behaviors we do not recognize as being civil or kind, but rather dramatic and unwelcomed to many who see this as an ugliness in character.

Focus on your journey for better experiences. Share with others what you have been blessed with or learned. Participate in community building and joining together minds, energies, creativity and productive processes which may overcome our prejudices, our transcending differences of opinions and learn to accept love ourselves as well as each other. 

Never wander off this path for the path is different than the journey. Staying on the less traveled road is taking the right road. The high road and the moral road. It is connected to life that allows us to achieve a wholeness in successes, maturity and spiritual growth in our life.