Hey, Friends! I am not the best driver. I’m what I’d like to consider a functional driver. In fact, most of my family is surprised that I even have a license at all.
Still, there’s one basic thing that I’m pretty certain about. You’re supposed to come to a complete stop at stop signs.
Why does it bother me so much? I feel like there is an abnormal amount of four-way stops where I live.
Picture it. I’m on my way to the grocery store because lately I have not been wanting to make a super big order. Anyway, I can see the four-way stop at the end of the street. A car rolls through the stop sign, like stopping is merely a suggestion.
I immediately start overthinking:
Would that car have stopped if another car had already been there?
Did the car only not stop because there was no one else around?
How hard is it to actually stop?
Is it a matter of entitlement?
Is it a matter of feeling like you’re above the law?
It actually irritated me to high heaven because there are a lot of complex things in life that we experience on a daily basis, and I just feel like stopping at a stop sign isn’t one of them. Like, if you’re late and racing to get somewhere, do you lose a lot of time by stopping at a stop sign? I’m the type of person that if I didn’t stop at a stop sign a few times, it would quickly become an awful and terrible habit. That’s why I don’t even take that chance. Either I’m going to follow the rules all the way, or I’m not going to want to follow them at all. That’s just the way I’m wired. Gray areas make me itch.
My question for you, friends, is this: Do your standards change when no one is watching?
In other words, is your character consistent when there is no one around? It's just something to think about from time to time. It actually reminds me of one of my favorite quotes:
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.”
- Nathaniel Hawthorne (from The Scarlet Letter)
So, tell me. Do you stop or not?
Leave a comment here or on one of my social media channels: Facebook, Instagram, X, BlueSky, or LinkedIn.
Until next Sunday…
-Ash