A couple of years ago I was merging onto the freeway. In the back seat I had one child crying and the other had just peed themselves. It was the end of the day and I was feeling exhausted. The day had not gone well. My only thought was to get out of my mess of a day and get home.
As I was merging, however, I didn’t see that I was about to cut off a truck because I hadn’t even registered yet that I was merging lanes again. It’s not an on ramp I use very often, maybe once or twice a year, and I had myself and my sad children on my mind. The truck, on the other hand, didn’t see it the same way. He laid on the horn, proceeded to cut me off, and was probably stringing a whole slew of profanities off at me as he was turned, yelling at me with a choice finger to go along with it.
Granted, he probably had a rough day as well. His skin seemed worn from the sun and his truck was that of blue collar work. Maybe he was equally tired. Maybe work hadn’t gone well that day. Despite what was going on in our personal lives, I was disappointed at how he handled the situation. He had no idea how bad that made me feel. He had no idea that I had an awful day.
I wish we could have more compassion. I wish we all could show more kindness to each other. We have no idea what is going on in each other’s lives at times and have no idea what they might be going through. My hope is that we can treat others with more respect.
“Kindness should permeate all of our words and actions at work, at school, at church, and especially in our homes.” -Joseph B. Wirthlin
I also believe that kindness should permeate all of our words and actions in every single thing we do, whether we know the person or not.
