Diversion Hilarity

For about the past two months I have been riding my bike to work. The ride is about thirty minute each way, so at first it was a lot to get used to, but now I really enjoy the time. Each day starts with a healthy sweat, and lately a pretty brisk jaunt across town. The other day some typical LA driver in an Audi drove by me way too fast shouting some obscenities. The funny part about this was in typical LA style he stopped about two hundred yards down the road. His gas pedal laden rage session came to a halt fairly quickly. I unfortunately wasn’t able to catch up with him, so we both went about our days. As I continued my ride, I was thinking about why people are so angry. On and off throughout the next day, this angry Audi kept appearing in my mind. I wasn’t really sure how or why to try and reconcile this.

The next day, I mentioned this occasion to one of my buddies. He offered something I will never forget, and probably never would have done. He immediately said, “what if this man was heading to an acting audition in which he had to be mean and yell at someone. Imagine he wasn’t comfortable yelling, so he was practicing. Imagine that he was nervous about this job, and needed this gig or he was going to lose his house. Imagine that he was practicing over and over again. I was just the lucky witness on this block.”

I laughed and was speechless. What an amazing perspective. He then followed with three or four more outlandish, ridiculous scenarios that could only come from a sarcastic place. The point being was who knows? All I heard was a quick bout of yelling, and a revving engine. I didn’t know anything else. Who am I to get all judgmental of what went down?

He says he plays this game with his son when something unfortunate happens. This game is amazing. It involves imagination. It involves gratitude. It also involves empathy. All of these things are very worthwhile emotions and places to spend lots of time. Anger is just not a place to operate from. I learned a lot in this conversation. I diverted a sour feeling about how my morning went the previous day, and we got a hell of a laugh at the ridiculousness that he came up with about this yelling fool.

To my long lost yelling friend in the Audi. I hope you got the part in the movie. You sounded extremely good in our brief audition. And, yes, my gold helmet is a thing of extravagant beauty. See you next time.

 

Danny Lesslie

@dannylesslie