Before I get into my little rant, I have to disclose that I’m a total Type A personality all the way so this may strike you as a bit of hypocrisy if you know me at all. I at least admitted to it so now I can get into my thoughts for the day.

The other day I was riding my bike alone on a nice country road that isn’t traveled a lot, but it does get some traffic during “normal” commuting hours. I ride this particular route quite a bit because it’s peaceful, near my house, and it’s reasonably challenging. Generally when I ride solo, I’m off in my own little world not harming a soul, but I guess I must have offended a couple of dump trucks because two took a swipe at me even though there was no traffic coming in the other direction. Luckily I wasn’t going very fast since I was climbing a fairly decent hill, and it was good that I maintained my “line” on the right of the road, or you might not be reading any of my thoughts.

Since I obviously made it through the ride unscathed, I began thinking about how we all seem to have become obsessed with being in a hurry. I’m guilty of it as much as the next person when I’m driving and riding the bike, but I guess I had one of those enlightening moments after the dump truck incidents.

What are we in such a hurry to get to? Would five seconds really kill someone to have to wait to pass someone exercising outdoors? Is it too much to ask that a big heavy dump truck give a cyclist a little room when there is zero traffic coming in the opposite direction? Does swerving at the cyclist accomplish anything? Is it worth all of that just to keep your hurry on? Judging by the two incidents the other day, I guess the “hurry” is more important than anything else at that particular moment.

The “microwave society” touches each of us every single day whether we realize it or not, but it’s getting a little stale to me. Don’t ask me why it suddenly hit me during the ride, but it made me take a little stock of my life and some of the ways I go about doing some things. Maybe the vision of the dump trucks wiping me off the earth drove home the message, but I think I got it—it’s not cool to always be in such a hurry that you could cause harm to others. That’s flat out unhealthy and dangerous so I’m going to be working on myself from here on to dial it back a notch and not be in such a hurry all the time. Look at it this way: if something negative happened to someone else as a result of my hurry, the consequences are likely to stop the hurry altogether for a long period of time.

That’s a different perspective isn’t it?