DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

People are polite here.

After living in the City for eight years, it got under my skin… I was constantly in a hurry, drove aggressively (ultimately bought a motorcycle so I wouldn’t have to wait for all the slow-moving, slow-thinking cagers clogging the streets) and I wasn’t afraid to use the horn. Then I moved to the sticks and shortly found myself apologizing for driving the way I did. Locals unfailingly granted right-of-way. Drivers stop in the middle of the street so pedestrians can cross at the post office. They wave; they smile; they’re at peace. That’s a foreign concept for City folk, who I guess (speaking as a recovering City dweller) are in a hurry to find some peace but never realize that the act of hurrying prevents them from ever getting where they apparently intend to go.

So anyway, today the woman on the treadmill next to mine pulled her headphones off as I was leaving to apologize for breathing so heavily as she exercised. As if she’d offended me.

I used to say “I hate people,” and lots of the time I meant it. But then I heard a statement that shook me: There are no unresourceful people — only unresourceful states (Tony Robbins). Meaning, people are capable of being good, even great, but they don’t necessarily act that way for a variety of reasons (for a variety of unresourceful states of emotion, energy, etc.). And now I guess that, for a lot of people, stressors like traffic, lack of parking, and other characteristics of city life invoke some pretty unpleasant states. Pity.

I’d invite everyone to move to the sticks, but then we’d just have all the traffic and shootings I moved away from, and instead of people apologizing for breathing heavily they’d be rooting through my locker while I exercise. So my advice to all you City people is this: stay right where you are.

Meanwhile, I’m driving slowly and smiling a lot. Peace!