I have a particular inner dialogue that occurs when I’m out and about.  There are a few guiding principles to my reasoning.  Here they are.

1).  Compassion for myself and others, first and foremost.  How am I doing?  How are others doing?  Somebody cuts me off, they must be in a dreadful hurry and feeling stressed out.  Maybe they are rushing to the hospital to check on a loved one, so many things are possible.  I get annoyed at someone’s behavior, I must be considerate of the feelings of anybody around me when I express my upset.  (But, clearly there must be an outlet for my feelings because random acts of strangers mustn’t ruin my day).

2).  Whoever seems to be suffering the most gets the right-of-way.  If it’s raining, pedestrians get to go first.  Same for bikers.  If somebody’s carrying a heavy load, same story.

3).  Everybody gets the benefit of the doubt.

Which leads me to my newest addition to The Grace Plan:

Since we inevitably go slower as we age, let the faster folks go on ahead.  Enjoy taking it easy.

Which is to say that while I am fine with doing my civic duty and waiting patiently for the lady with the walker to cross the bumpy-in-need-of-a-resurfacing-crosswalk while I practice the above listed principles of my personal inner dialogue, I sure would be grateful if she’d look up and realize that by the time she gets across the street I could be two intersections further along my way.  And given that I’ve got one half an hour to run two errands before I must be back home to relieve my child-care provider, I really can use every moment that I’ve got.

Speed, like so many other things, is relative.