Being Thankful

I was going to post this earlier but being Canadian Thanksgiving, I was caught up in a multitude of Turkey dinners, and didn’t quite have the time to get around to it until now.

Driving to work one time, I found myself in the inside left lane nearest to the directional yellow divider, whereas usually I stick to the right, slower moving traffic lane, except to pass. I had noticed a bicycle up ahead in the curb lane. I mention this because this is important…I could see in my rear-view mirror that there was a car coming up beside me in that right curb lane.

My brain, working the way it does, like an advanced supercomputer from the 70’s that it is, put these two pieces of information together almost instantaneously.  In that nanosecond or so, I deduced that the car would likely want to change over to my lane, so I eased off the gas and created abundant space in front of me. More than enough for that car to squirt right in.

As expected, that’s exactly what happened. When the driver of the curbside car noticed the bicyclist, he shifted over.

Now having created space like that, I didn’t have any expectation that the driver would have noticed what I had done. But to my surprise and delight, he did and waved his thanks as we rolled up to the red light together.

So obviously, I waved thanks back for him acknowledging my courtesy.

To which he waved back at me.

And so on and so forth for a good couple minutes – the back and forth of humanity living.

And on this Thanksgiving day, I feel it’s appropriate to acknowledge these small acts. To give thanks.

It was really nice.

Polite aware drivers getting along. Spending a few moments realizing we’re all in this together. That we can make the streets safer for all users, drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Road friends forever.

Until the rude driver behind me started honking and swearing while shaking his fist, interrupting my new friendship ritual.

Looking up into my rear-view mirror again, I could make out something about green light…