A conscious choice

Every day, life is filled with conscious choices. Whether to have protein or carbohydrates for breakfast. Whether to take a different route to work. Whether to kill someone who is insufferably rude.

The latter occurred yesterday on a busy state highway through a city. Throngs of motorcyclists were in town for some gathering, and a pack of them was occupying the left lane. I merged into the left lane among them,  because I needed to turn left in the next few blocks.

One motorcyclist, with Minnesota plates and homely ballast on the back, took umbrage that I would occupy “his” left lane, which (apparently) was for bikers only. He cut in front of me and slammed on the brakes, while waving the rest of the pack around me. I leaned on the horn. He (and his homely ballast) gave me a rude gesture, and slowed down further. I continued to lean on the horn as my darling wife urged calm, even though she found their actions to be infuriating.

At that point, I made a conscious choice. I could easily have squashed him and his noisy antisocial machine, and made the world a better place. I could have drawn my weapon and eliminated them both with a single shot through the back. I could have bumped them and sent them spinning into oncoming traffic. (That last one was a nice thought, but would have involved other drivers, who did not ask to be involved).

I made a conscious choice to let them live. Mainly because the cost to my time and convenience (dealing with the police, perhaps, or missing my flight) was greater than the value of their lives. That alone made me feel better, knowing that I had the power of life and death over them, and I chose to let them live despite their incredible rudeness. For I believe that society is self-correcting. Rude people tend not to live very long, because they eventually meet someone who simply will not tolerate rudeness as well as I do. Rude people on motorcycles lead even shorter lives, because they have no protection other than their attitude.

And I am an ambassador for my kind on this planet. We are few, but we have an image to uphold. I made a conscious choice to behave better than I wanted to. The motorcyclist from Minnesota is also an ambassador, and his behavior reflected badly on motorcyclists everywhere.

I wonder how long he will live, behaving badly on his motorcycle.

Not long, I think.