Lots of reports have been published about how the population has become angrier during COVID.  I tend to get resentful and indignant too.  In fact, my original draft of this post was going to blast a well-know brand for its frustrating service policies.  I’ve decided against that. 

A couple of days ago a weird thing happened to me.  As I was stopped at a light, a pickup pulling a trailer with a car on it turned next to me.  As it passed, the car on its trailer rolled off and into my car, pinning my door shut.  Clearly, the car had been improperly secured. 

Then it got even stranger: I decided not to get mad.  I took a deep breath and got out.  I was pleasant, and matter of fact, patient while we waited for the police to do their work.  

Objectively, resolving this matter puts an unfair burden on me.  It involves a 7-week wait to get my car repaired, lack of availability and adequate coverage for a rental car for that period of time, the at-fault driver’s insurance company deciding whether they are responsible to pay.  And all this falling on me to manage… I was just sitting in my car, not moving.  It ISN’T FAIR that the incompetence of someone else put all this on me.   

No, it’s not. And inevitably one day it will be ME causing this unfair burden for someone else.  Now that I’m thinking about it, my mistakes of inexperience and incompetence have hurt others plenty in the past.  Reflecting on my young self – learning how to do a new job, I made the lives of others around me unpleasant and worse.  Those pains I’ve caused were much more “unfair” to others than the experience I’m having with my car.