MonuMental

I found myself behind four people driving to work today . The same four people I see every morning, although they’re not always exactly the same, or in the same order.

They’re always mushing into line late when we have to merge. Sometimes they almost cause themselves or others to wreck. Other times they just cause lags and delays in the free forward movement of traffic. I know them well and will tell you about them now.

In the first car was Myra. Myra is pre-diabetic and will inevitably reach the full, permanent condition one day soon. She doesn’t change her behaviors until it’s too late. She has the warnings and no reason to not fully trust the signs, but Myra won’t do anything different with herself or her body until it’s almost too late. At that point she’ll look around and hope to get on a different path just seconds to then end.

Alise was in the second car. Alise is bad at saving money because she doesn’t see what’s coming until it appears right in the windsheild. She gets emails from her bank notifying her the account is getting low (only 500 yards left) but Alise can’t think of any reason to deal with it until she sees her demise in sight. She hopes that once she’s there someone will let her out and give her some space to keep going since she’s run out of her own.

Steve, in the third car, elects not do have health insurance. He’s also a last-second merger. His philosophy says to him “They have plenty of space.They’ll let me in.” and prevents him from preparing for the inevitable. Steve is more than happy to inconvenience the person next to him when that time comes. Other people who have planned ahead will end up giving their place to Steve so he can have what the rest have prepared for. He’ll frustrate everyone who has purposely gone to the fast lane though they normally do not unless it’s an emergency.  Ultimately they’re going to end up spending more of their resources in their state of hurry on Steve, even though he’s only making a routine trip.

Chris was the fourth car. Chris you can see from a ways away because he’s always signaling that he’s going to get over but never manages to get around to it until it’s nearly too late. He occasionally even goes onto the shoulder if the circumstances are unfortunate enough. Chris goes along telling you what you want to hear but his actions don’t follow suit, ultimately revealing his true lack of ability to act. When Chris starts merging he’ll cause a stir because most people aren’t expecting it. His signaling is meaningless by the time he follows through with it.

The fifth car is an early merger. “This lane ends in 1,000 yards” doesn’t mean “Stay here and don’t merge for another 990 yards!” They try not to miss any signs and imagine what end might come if the warnings aren’t given attention. They make their own space while there is plenty to be taken and make arrangements for others who are going to crowd in, unprepared at the last minute. They’re ready for rough terrain, pot holes, accidents, weather, and anything else that may come their way but still hit their brakes harder, more often and on occasion nearly avoid collison due to the others.

I’ll see these same guys and girls tomorrow.

And keep striving, trying my hardest to be the fifth car, not any of the first four.

Health, money, integrity, trust.

All our destinations.