Recently when I was out running, I ran by a highway exit ramp and there was a car which had just exited and stopped at the stop sign there. As usual in these situations, I attempted to make eye contact with the driver to ensure that he was aware of my presence. In this case I was successful and he nodded. I continued on in front of him and gave a little thank you waive as I passed him. A few steps later, I realized that I was thanking him for doing what he is supposed to do. That is, stopping at the actual stop sign (instead of rolling past it), being aware of what (or who) is in the road in front of him and allowing a pedestrian to cross safely. In short, I had thanked this guy for not being an asshole. During my runs over the years, there have been a surprising number of drivers who have seen me, made eye contact with me, and continued to drive towards me and it never ceases to piss me off.
Now, I can understand the failure to yield if they don't make eye contact with me. I mean, let's face it, there are a lot of people who are just not great drivers. They aren't paying close attention to the roads, it doesn't even occur to them that they should yield at crosswalks and they have this embedded belief that being in a vehicle always trumps being on foot when it comes to the street hierarchy. For this reason, if I don't make eye contact, I assume that the driver doesn't see me and I either slow way down or stop so that I don't end up getting run down by someone who isn't even aware of my presence. And in these cases, I don't even hold it against the driver.
However, when someone obviously is aware of my presence and still keeps coming, either because they feel like they shouldn't have to wait on a pedestrian or because they want to try to scare me by coming as close to me as possible without hitting me, it really gets my blood boiling. In these cases, I feel that it's more than appropriate to designate the person as an asshole. And if you are ever in a situation where you are nearly run over by a driver in a pickup truck who is supposed to yield but instead drives on ahead and blares the horn when he (let's face it, it's usually a he) is right up on you then you would likely designate that person as an asshole as well. At any rate, it struck me interesting that I actually thank people for not being assholes but I'll keep on doing it because, hey, it's nice to be reminded that the non-assholes outnumber the assholes. (At least for now).
Moving on to the "Song of the Run".
On Monday of this week, I ran with The Killers. This is one of those bands that took me a little while to begin listening to because there were a few songs on their debut release that got a lot of airplay and that's typically a turnoff for me. I admit it. I'm one of those guys that likes to discover new bands that no one else is listening to. So, I was reluctant to investigate the bad that sang, "Mr. Brightside", "Smile Like You Mean It", and "Somebody Told Me".
However, when I signed up for emusic in 2005 and a short while later The Killers Second release was available for download, I decided that it was time to check them out. And, wow, am I glad I did! The second release, Sam's Town remains one of my favorites nearly a decade later.
So, it's no wonder that my Killers "Song of the Run" is the title track from that album, "Sam's Town"
"So why do you waste my time?
Is the answer to the question on your mind
And I'm sick of all my judges
They're so scared of letting me shine
But I know that I can make it
As long as somebody takes me home
Every now and then...
Well, have you ever seen the lights?"
Until next time, PEACE!
No comments:
Post a Comment