The Angry Little Bird

By: Samantha S. Daviss

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Is all this anger and impatience really worth living your life like this? I have lived in all three of the largest cities in Texas: Houston, Austin, and Dallas; plus Baton Rouge and the Twin Cities in Minnesota. So I can say this from both sides of the fence.

Although I love the convenience of big city life with the stores, more options, and a larger variety of activities to choose from; at this point in my life I really don’t think I would change my slow-paced rural town lifestyle for anything.

Sure I get frustrated with the limited selection of places to shop and go to; but my thoughts are, head on up to that big city just north of us, get your needs met and come on home. So we did that just the other day. We went up for a quick lunch and then a day filled with entertaining the kiddos, it really was a great day.

I was on a major roadway about to cross over a major freeway in Dallas, when something odd, but not necessarily a-typical happened to my lane. At the light it was lined up directly with the double turning lane in front of me once I made it through the light, or you could jog to the right a bit and continue to stay in the lane going straight through the light, and not have to turn. In fact both of the far right lanes did this, they “juked and jived” to the right a little to accommodate the double turning lanes.

Which was no big deal, until the very impatient and uptight young lady next to me got so upset with me. I guess her steering wheel was not function properly, because she slammed on her horn not wanting to follow in her lane, she thought she could come into my lane. So I have to blame it on a faulty steering column in her vehicle; that must have been the problem.

But “bless her little heart” (and we all know what that phrase means in Texas)…the poor little thing followed me for not one, not two, but four blocks in Dallas, Texas, only to meet me at the next light; she pulled up next to me, rolled down her window, yelled at me, and showed me a really pretty manicure she must have recently had done, not on her pointer finger or her ring finger, but the one in between. So you see where I am going with this.

I started to respond to her, then I observed at her age, and I just shook my head that she was actually that wrapped up with having to chase me down and reprimand me for something I did, that was completely legal, mind you, and show me just how macho she was. I felt so sorry for her that she actually wasted her time, her energy, and got herself so worked up over something so completely trivial.

I feel like society is so completely skewed on what we need to concern ourselves with. Let’s get upset about the abused children, abused animals, wasted products, our environment…I’m not going to turn this political, but there are so many other things we can focus on. Like maybe my new friend could focus or work harder on being happier, rather than so angry. I mean seriously, she is driving around in her own car, that she is able to afford gasoline for, in a very nice part of Dallas, Texas; so let’s focus on what we have and not what we don’t have…like total and complete lane ownership on a major Dallas road.

I am pretty sure that my supposed traffic violation is not the first she has encountered in the metroplex, so does she just drive around with her manicure in the air? People just need to learn to smile a little bit more, and frown a little bit less.