I was surprised to read about a man in Kosciusko
County recently sentenced to 23
years in prison for a road rage incident that took place in 2016. That seemed like a steep punishment to me,
until I read the article. The perpetrator,
irritated at another driver, fired a gun at that driver and then rammed his car
several times sending it off the road.
When the County Sheriff’s
Officer attempted to intercept him, he sideswiped the officer causing his
airbags to deploy and knocking the officer unconscious. When another officer arrived, the angry
driver used his truck to repeatedly ram the police cruiser. The renegade driver was finally subdued and
taken into custody, but about a month later, he saw one of the original victims
driving with his wife and after attempting to hit them “head on” was arrested
again. Clearly someone has an anger management
problem.
Maybe it’s my imagination, but lately, here in Terre
Haute, I’ve seen more incidents of angry drivers then
usual…honking, rudely waving, yelling, etc. Just yesterday, for example, I
witnessed such an incident on 3rd street,
and even though it didn’t involve me, I felt sorry for the hapless driver who
irritated a speeding and accelerating driver by pulling onto the road in front
of him at a sane speed. The speeding
driver wasn’t shy about letting his displeasure out.
So many people seem to be walking around full of anger,
looking for any excuse to erupt. Like
pressure cookers ready to explode, all it takes is a small crack on the surface
to get a destructive blast, and crackpots like this are all over the place. And this is in spite of the fact that most of
us really have very little to be angry about.
Unlike many people in history, we don’t have to work bone-crushing jobs
that grind us down and kill us before we reach forty. We have food to eat, clothes to wear, roofs
over our heads, family and friends. And
yet, our discontent runs amok.
Since summer time is that season when many people take
vacations, I’d like to offer a suggestion here.
Let’s take a vacation from unwarranted anger.
If you hang around discontented people all the time, you
will become discontented. Or crazy. Or both.
The discontented tend to become angry, and we need to take a vacation
from anger.
If you constantly relive the wrong’s you’ve endured, both
imaginary and real, you will end up carrying a load of resentment. Resentful people become angry, and we need to
take a vacation from anger.
If you fill your life with anxiety and never take a moment
to unwind, you will become anxious. Anxious
people become angry, and we need to take a vacation from anger.
There’s no way to avoid discontent, resentment, or anxiety. But we don’t have to cultivate these things
until they produce a harvest of rage. Relax. It’s summer.
Take a vacation…from anger. And one
more thing: when you’re on the road, please
try to be nice.
Peace;
David
