Pickup trucks are not really meant for crowded grocery supermarket parking lots, which is why I park far away or at the back so that I don’t get in the way of the smaller cars and SUVs. Today, while driving towards my customary far spot, a guy was having trouble backing his car out of a parking space and into the driving lanes (I have no idea what was happening with him to be honest). I think he wasn’t confident in his turning radius which made him reverse a little and re-position. I’m sure you guys know what I’m talking about. Anyway, because the grocery store was crowded due to the lunch hour, I and 3 other vehicles were now waiting to be able to park because he was taking up both the ingress and egress lanes.
Here’s where living moderately has taken root of my attitude. One of the cars behind me and another on the adjacent side started honking their horns to try and hurry this man up. In all fairness, the lanes were a little tight and he just was in the right angles where other cars around him parked were parked in weird angles too. Basically, he was in the perfect storm.
Amongst the cacophony of car horns, I got out and approached him (a dangerous thing to do) but with my hands up and told him to ignore the beeps and take his time and that I’m not honking my horn. All in all, he was able to get out in another minute. In the end, there was nothing to be gained in rushing the person, and everything to lose if he put himself in an even worse position – a little empathy goes a long way, right?
The funny thing about it all was that after the guy left, the car adjacent honking their horn had trouble parking head first into the newly empty spot because of the parking angles of the cars in the spaces next to her – which explained why the previous guy had so much trouble getting out. So now she had to do a little stopping and reversing against a queue of cars behind her.
My hand was so close to blasting her with the horn – it really was. But that kind of petty conduct isn’t mine to take. It’s dispensed by a cosmic balance that requests privacy and mystery in what it does. For me to encroach into that sacred space would constitute a grave violation of that balance.
But it didn’t mean that I couldn’t have a respectful chuckle at her ironic predicament.
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