World Peace and the Lost Art of Turn Signaling

As children, we learn some basic rules of behavior. Be nice to your classmates. Raise your hand if you have something to say. Don’t pull other people’s hair. Eat your vegetables; go to bed early; play fair.

Some of us accepted these rules, some of us tested them, some of us flat out rebelled in the face of perceived tyranny—and probably spent a lot more time in our rooms as a result. But the rules themselves were not out to get us. Most of them were designed to help us learn how to be good humans: take care of yourself, respect others. Pretty simple stuff.

But then we grew up. And all hell broke loose.

For instance: I was driving to a doctor appointment the other day. Because the driver across the intersection from me made his left turn rather than yield to my right turn (all on green), I was stuck in a lane that runs out after the next light. No problem, that’s why there are two lanes.

I stopped at the next intersection’s red light. When the light changed, traffic started moving, and I saw a fair amount of space to my left. I turned on my signal, began to merge—and the driver behind me stepped on the gas, roared up beside me, and pushed me back into the lane that had now run out.

Hmm. Now that’s not very nice.

I was not after his firstborn, or his retirement fund, or the last slice of pie. I didn’t try to “cut in”, or fail to use my signal. I don’t even have a smelly car.

The truth is, we all have our moments. We’re preoccupied. Running late. No coffee. Have to beat the traffic. We’re chatting on our cell phones and don’t actually notice what’s going on around us. Or we’re just fed up with everyone else and stop caring. Ouch.

We may begin stumbling out the door in the morning thinking we’re the only ones out there that have anyplace to go, or any reason to go there. And that’s a convenient illusion that lets us off the hook.

But think about this. There’s a whole world of trouble out there. There’s war—more than one. There are family members in harm’s way, and families who know nothing but fear. There are AIDS epidemics and countries without clean drinking water. I don’t have to make a bigger list; it’s all plain to see as soon as we read the news.

My point is this: there are ways in which small lapses in caring can add up to big problems. The large problems have to be dealt with on a large scale. The small ones—well, maybe we can head those off. It all starts in the same place—a willingness to care, to cooperate, to be a little bit less selfish. To be courteous (do you use your turn signal?), however grudgingly at first. We might start to like it. That one ounce of goodwill we can pry from our overworked, caffeine-starved hearts could be the start of something good. It might even lower our blood pressure.

Consider it. Those rules we learned as children are not so bad. Because everything starts, and everything changes, by what we choose to do right here, right now, every day.