On my way back home Friday, I came off the local freeway offramp and was behind a car that was waiting for the traffic signal to turn green. In short order the light turned green, yet the car in front of me didn’t move. After a momentary wait, realizing that the driver was not paying attention to the now green light so I gave a short tap of my car horn. For those who have heard my car horn, they know how truly forceful it can be, for it is classified as a “highway horn”, which sounds quite like a train more than your average car horn. It is probably the singularly best feature of my now “classic” car has, besides the comfortable and cozy upholstery seats.
Seeing that my gentle tap upon the horn did not evoke any reaction from the driver, I figured to just go around him by turning into the other lane over and thus proceed on my merry way home. As soon as I was in a position to go through the intercession, wouldn’t you know it, the light turned red!
Exasperated, I turned to look at the driver and threw my hands up in the air for added effect. Usually when it comes to driving, I remain pretty calm and Zen like, which in and of itself is quite a feat here in LA. Nevertheless, I was put off by this little happenstance. The driver within the other car saw me and said most apologetically, “I am so sorry!” Hearing those surprising words uttered immediately loosened my mood, where by I gave him a thumbs up and retorted, “It’s cool”.
I turned back my focus upon the red signal, waiting for it to change, only to have the feeling that the driver wanted my attention. Looking back over to the driver, sure enough my intuition was correct, for he added, “I heard a song from my childhood and I wanted to write it down so I could go back and listen to it again.” Good enough reason for me I thought, for how often have I heard a song and quickly jotted down the info, so as to listen to it again. I quickly replied knowing that at any moment the light would soon change, “what song was it?” He replied with a smile, “Do You Know by Diana Ross.”
With that the light turned green and we drove off our separate ways, but my thought driving home was how cool it was that this driver said something so rarely heard these days, “I am sorry” and how it went from some circumstance of annoyance, to one of congenial sharing in a sense.
When I finally came home, the first thing I did after greeting Jake and Bear my dogs was to go find the song Do You Know. Sure enough, it reminded me of my childhood as well, since it came out in the early 1970’s.
