Re: Where Is The Love?

[Cassidy Bolger <cbolger@vt.edu>]

At 07:31 AM 10/25/99 -0700, you wrote:
>I still don't understand people.  I wave to every Audi driver I pass 
>(quattro or non-quattro), maybe they don't share our opinions about their 
>cars, but if someone waves to why not wave back?  Are people getting that 
>anti-social?  I get more waves from high school kids driving hopped up VW's.
>
>Scott
>
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I feel your pain.  Last weekend some friends and I spent hours over beers at our local spot and devoted quite a lot of time on the issue of human interaction in our increasily disconnected society. ( The listerserv is one new way we communicate, however.)

I had waved at a guy who took a left turn onto the street on which I was travelling.  He cut into my lane quite a bit and  I had to stop several car lengths ahead of the stop sign so that he could retain his trajectory.  He was driving a beat up old chevy pickup, had a cigarette in one hand, and was struggling with steering that clearly was no longer "power".  I guess I was just in a good mood and waved to let him  know that it was no big deal, I saw him coming and it was 5 o'clock on Friday.  He smiled and waved back at me as he burbled past, struggling to keep the old horse from stalling.

The point is, by acknowledging each other, both of us went our seperate directions with a better feeling.  We could have glared at each other, me in my German sedan and buttoned shirt, him in flannel, long goatee and bandanna, and gone through the day just a little more anxious and bitter. 

The simple wave and exchange among citizens ( particularly behind the wheel, since we spend so much of our lives there) is a solution to the increasingly violent and disconnected nature of the world we have built.  At least that was what we came up with after a few ales.

Peace 

Cassidy Bolger
Blacksburg, VA
1986 5000CS tq