Common Sense and Common Courtesy

Common sense and common courtesy. I have thought about these two items for a long time. To be more exact, the lack of both.

I live outside of Houston,Texas and work in the city. As I write this we are thawing out from an ice storm. Every time there is an ice storm somewhere in the United States, there are pictures and reports on television about accidents caused by people driving too fast on icy roads. For some reason, people seem to think that they can continue to drive the same way and at the same speed as they normally do. But where these people really show their lack of common sense is now that the ice has melted but the torrential rain continues. I was driving to work this morning at about 60 miles an hour. This is about 5 miles an hour less than the limit but it was about the rate of traffic in general. For the most part, drivers were going a little slower than normal and keeping good space between cars. A good idea considering the slick roads and the fact that the posted speed limit in Texas tends to be a minimum speed on most highways as drivers go much faster.

This is where the lack of common sense comes in. There were a large number of drivers that felt like it was okay to drive the same way that they would on a clear and dry day. Numerous drivers seemed to think that 75 to 80 miles an hour while weaving in an out of the other drivers was perfectly fine. And then there was the driver who helped inspire me to write this piece.
Traffic had increased as I got closer to town. So much so that, even though we were still driving at about 55, there was no room to change lanes or to go faster than anyone else. However, the gentleman in the oversized Ford Land Barge must have gotten lost trying to find his way to a NASCAR race as he seemingly tried to ride in my draft, inches from my bumper. While inches might be an exaggeration, he was so close to me that there were times that I could not see his headlights in my rearview mirror. If I had had to hit my brakes, there would have been nowhere for him to go except into my rear bumper. This kept up for about 2 miles until it was time for me to exit. As I looked at this gentleman as I pulled onto the off-ramp, I was greeted with his middle finger extended in my direction. I still can't figure out why he was upset with me, because even if I had been able to get out of his way, he would have been only 1 car length closer to his destination.

His extended middle finger leads me to my second point. The rapid disappearance of common courtesy.

The evening after my observations of the lack of common sense on the highway, a trip to Wal-Mart gave me many examples of the lack of common courtesy. My experience began in the parking lot with one of my pet peeves, people that can't walk 20 steps to put their shopping cart in a cart corral. It annoys me to no end to watch someone leave their cart in a parking place when they are 3 spaces from a corral. People like this are probably responsible for more dings and dents in cars than anyone realizes. Anyway, as I was pulling into a space, there was a car pulling into a space in the next parking aisle. Unfortunately for this family, there was a cart that had been left in the space they wanted to occupy. The female passenger jumped out and proceeded to push the cart into the space I was trying to pull into, with me already pulling into the space. I had to jump out and put the cart into the corral that was next to both of our cars.
My courtesy deficient trip continued as I tried to enter the store. A rather large family must have decided that they needed to have a family meeting while standing in the opening of one of the 2 doors. The other door was blocked by a mother pushing an SUV sized baby stroller who suddenly decided to stop and check on her young child, again, right in the doorway. Both doorways quickly backed up and the door blockers seemed totally clueless as to their inconsiderate behavior.

My visit was full of other examples. Numerous people who would park their carts sideways in an aisle, blocking traffic completely, people allowing their kids to run around the store, often screaming, and then, the people who either cannot read or count. Yes, those that try to go through the express lanes with overflowing carts. I would say 80% of the time I have seen someone mention to these folks they were in the express lane, these same people either ignore the mention or get upset that it was being pointed out to them.

I feel that we are living in a time when common sense and common courtesy both seem lost in our society. I have mentioned just a few examples of things that happened to me in just one day. There is evidence of the lack of common sense and common courtesy everywhere. Listen to news reports. Read the paper. Or just observe when you are out and about. And maybe, just maybe, use a little common sense and show a little common courtesy.

Keep Smiling!

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