Dear Editor:
Your busy readers, rushing around between jobs, family, holiday events, and shopping up to our socio-corporate expectations, probably won't have time to read this. Too bad.
Since October, when I blew a brain gasket and began a sixth-month medical non-driving advisory, I have spent considerable time being driven around by those I have driven in the past. It has given me the luxury of watching the faces of other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, scooter-operators, and cops, something I had scant time for when the wheel was in my hands in the combat zone.
What do I see? Urban neurosis. Fear. Stress. Anxiety. Aggression. Competitiveness to the nth degree. And, of course, the usual: incompetence, ignorance, stupidity and ego-centrism.
However, you know what else I see? Exchanges of smiles. Waved or honked thank-you's for a break in traffic. Motorists stopping to help each other when they have a problem. Young drivers (yes, I said young drivers) driving competently and courteously.
So here is my Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, winter solstice, Christmas and New Year's wish to you: take a deep breath, remember life and health are precious, pain, misery and financial ruin are a pain in the ass.
Happy Trails and Happy Holidays to all the readers out there in Newsland.
Ryan Lake, by email
