A thought crossed my mind the other day while I was driving back to college with all of the things I needed for the school year stuffed inside my Subaru. (Except for my pillow pet, which I sadly forgot. Sorry Wesley.) That thought was, "Wowie, do I trust people a lot." I had stopped at a gas station for gas and a bathroom break on my way there, and this thought struck me as I walked from my car to the building, turning my head and clicking the lock button on my key three times for good measure.
While to some this may seem like I do not trust people because I am locking them out to ensure my belongings stay safe, I do not really see it that way. My car is still there. If someone really wanted to, they could break into my car and steal everything: my laptop, my bedding, my books, my toiletries and my clothes. (Wesley would be safe at least.) Hundreds of dollars worth of items could be stolen from me if someone took their time to rob me of my things. It has happened before, and will happen again (clarification: not to me, but to people in general). Me locking my car is not a 100% foolproof method for protecting my stuff. I am still trusting that people will not destroy my car, or hit it with theirs.
That is actually something I think about while driving a lot, about the sheer trust we as drivers put into the people on the road around us. We trust that no one is going to mess around and crash on purpose. We trust that the people on the road know how to drive, and know what to do in case of bad weather or traffic conditions. That is a lot of trust if you ask me. People's lives are on the line every day. One wrong move from one driver could be catastrophic. There is a reason we learn defensive driving in driver's ed. It can be a dog eat dog world out there on the roads.
However, it is not all bad. There are those drivers who let you in their lane on those days when traffic is backed up until forever. There is the classic, "No, you go" wave at a 4-way stop sign. My favorite moment though is when an ambulance zooms by with its sirens sounding, and no one even thinks of getting in its way. Everyone pulls over for ambulances (at least in my experience) because people want to help others help people, and because it is illegal not to. People break laws, but I have never heard of people not pulling over for an ambulance. (Maybe it is just me, but I do not think so.) Ambulance drivers trust that the drivers on the road will pull over for them, as they lawfully should, and drivers trust that the ambulances help people.
I do not really have anything else to say except to urge others to look around and recognize the trust in your life, and drive carefully.
