Today, in New York City, a beautiful young woman flipped the bird at me as I backed into an empty space to make a u-turn. She was having a bad day, I assume, even though the sun was shining and she was comfortable in her shiny black BMW. She wasn’t foaming at the mouth or begging for money. She was well-coifed and stylishly dressed. Why she gave me the finger, I’ll never understand, but I do know that behind the wheel, people do things they would not do in polite company. So I’ll chalk it up to a lesson in behind-the-wheel psychology.
A dear friend of mine once said that people think they are invisible when they are in their cars. Like nameless, faceless creatures, they inhabit the cockpits of their vehicles and do the most disgusting, embarrassing, and otherwise uncivilized things whether traveling at high rates of speed or at a stoplight.
Take the large bald man who relentlessly picked his nose while sitting at a traffic signal. He wasn’t just picking his nose, he was mining it. I cannot imagine that he’d behave this way at a dinner party or at a board meeting, but there he was, dressed in a suit, probing for another nostril nugget. I tried not to look, but I found him offensive and intriguing at the same time. What the hell was he thinking? How can someone do this in plain sight of others? Does he have a brother? (just kidding)
Maybe it’s just that our cultural mores have shifted and we value our own reputations less and are less easily embarrassed in this era of reality TV. But. I’ve noticed that today's car seems to be a modern-day invisibility cloak, where anything goes, even with the windows rolled down. From the twenty-something couple shouting the F-bomb at each other while arguing in a parked car in a crowded lot, to the woman angrily swinging her crying toddler by the arms while tossing him into her mini-van, anonymity seems assured, even when the license plate is visible.
I’m not a prim and proper lady by any stretch, and I don’t get embarrassed when I see that a man has pulled off the roadside to relieve himself. But I do wish there were more self-awareness in modern day life and more consideration for others’ sensibilities. I wish we could sincerely smile at each other, apologize, and pass the Kleenex when someone needs it— even if they are two cars away.
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