Over the 4th of July weekend, I traveled up to Tennessee from Georgia to visit my family.  It was a typical interstate experience – especially for a holiday weekend in the Atlanta area.  You know the routine:  jockeying for position to get around the 18 wheeler going 0.0025 mph faster than the other 18 wheeler it was passing, inferno-like frustration with people driving under the speed limit in the left-hand lanes, and a constant state of fear of the 18 year-old who is more interested in her cell phone conversation than the 4,000 pound hunk of metal that she is driving at 70 mph.  You know how self-wise we become within the confines of our own vehicle.  We believe that we are the best driver in the world, anyone going 1 mph faster than us is a maniac with a “No Fear” sticker on their back glass, and anyone going 1 mph slower than us is an idiot complete with Billy Bob teeth and an AARP bumper sticker right next to the one that says “Mondale/Ferraro ‘84”.

The sense of angst amongst the fellow drivers is palpable.  I am white-knuckling my way through the traffic and just about to clear it when my wife informed that she needed a bathroom stop.  In all fairness, we were traveling with our 2 year old, my wife was 7 months pregnant, and we hadn’t stopped in probably 3 hours.  Furthermore, between my pregnant wife, my 2 year old, and myself, I have the smallest bladder.

 

We stopped at the next rest stop and an amazing thing happened.  Those same people who were cutting each other off and giving each other menacing stares and less than appropriate gestures were now holding doors open for each other, smiling as they acknowledged each other’s presence, and using words like, “excuse me” and “thank you”.  What a difference human-to-human interaction makes!  These were no longer unknown silhouettes devising evil plans to encroach on our vehicular personal space, but real live people weary from travel with full (or recently emptied) bladders.

 

The sad part about all of this is that our interaction with the vast majority of people is rarely occurring face-to-face at the rest stops.  We are more prone to stay in our vehicle and offer ill-tempered glares to the vehicles around us.  This metaphorical vehicle may be a job title, market segment, ethnicity, political affiliation, or religious belief.  We only see the vehicle, not the people inside it and are content to criticize those people as we interact only with the occupants of our own vehicle.