Road Rage - an Encounter with Shame

"Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame" Benjamin Franklin

Earlier this week I encountered, and not for the first time, an incident of road rage. Not unusual on the streets of South London, but what was perhaps less usual was the sense of detached observation I experienced at the time. Somehow, in the midst of the brewing commotion and imminent disarray I was able to see, as though through a different lens, what was happening as the frustrated female leaped from her driver's seat to vent emotions which seemed disproportionate to the immediate events. It was as though a pot had boiled over, and those of us sitting in surrounding cars witnessed her descent into an abyss of shame, further fuelling her rage. Having left the privacy of her vehicle with a sense of entitlement driving her fury, she found herself very much alone and embarrassed having so visibly lost control - prompting, I think, a subsequent outburst whose origins were vastly removed from her original grievance.

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The Reward is the Journey

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