...to the now-driving neighbor girl. Here's a little advice--learn to exercise courtesy and grace, especially when interacting with your neighbors.
I know that my big bank of white pines intrudes on the roadway and that I have a big-ass stone mailbox that is difficult to see around when I back out of my driveway, but neither of these obstacles means that you should come over the hill with no regard for me and my big-ass Pacifica. Until I can get the trees trimmed and until I can ditch this car for something less cumbersome, it falls to you to offer courtesy. You have the right of way, but you won't be late for school if you stop to let me out in front of you on mornings when I don't see you coming--on mornings when I don't see you barreling over the hilltop heading straight for the curve with no intention to stop for anyone or anything that might have the misfortune of crossing your careless path.
On these mornings, it also falls to you to offer me grace. I'm sure it's frustrating to have to accommodate me and my car, and I'm sure when I make you break your stride and actually apply the brake, you might be angry. But if you can extend grace (take a breath and let it go for being nothing but a momentary inconvenience), then you will have accomplished one of the more lofty of human achievements. You will have made a connection with a fellow human in a way that puts us above the rest of creation. Choose to be better and more accommodating, and choose to rise above your basic human condition.
This is advice I feel qualified to offer because I have to work at exericising these same principles. It is in my basic nature to plow through intersections and TAKE my right of way, but it is of a higher human ability that I choose to make way for the rest of the driving population.
You thought you were just operating a motor vehicle, but when you drive, you're opening yourself up to a new world of opportunities and possibilities for growth and development. They didn't teach you that at the AAA--they were remiss.
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