Hey, Fellow Tribeless!
What’s on your mind today? I’m confronted with the insidious disregard for others that is all too rampant among us.
It is construction season once again in Chicago, which means you can travel nowhere without being stopped or slowed by torn up lanes. And yes, it’s frustrating, impeding, and sometimes feels like a necessary evil. But as I’m driving through the construction on 355 this afternoon, bright orange hard hats highlighting the closed lanes, I begin to wonder about the many motorists who feel it is safe to continue driving 70+ mph.
And the glaring realization is that they aren’t even thinking about those hard hats, the men and women underneath them working to make our roads faster and safer and more efficient for Our commutes, men and women working to feed and clothe themselves and their families – just like we do. These motorists instead are only thinking about themselves, getting to wherever they are going five minutes faster.
And, if you don’t believe me, it’s basic physics. Do the math.
Time = Distance/Speed
So, driving through 10 miles of construction...
at 75 mph: time = 10mi x min/1.25mi = 8 min
at 65 mph: time = 10mi x min/1.08mi = 9.23 min
and at 45 mph: time = 10mi x min/0.75mi = 13.33 min
Driving 75 mph in a 10-mile construction zone rated at 45 mph saves 5.3 minutes. Is the potential for that man or woman in the hard hat coming home safe at the end of their shift, cooking dinner for their family, kicking off their shoes and snuggling into the couch to unwind in front of the T.V. really less worthy than your 5 minutes?
If we all saw each other as we saw ourselves, we would create a world with more compassion, more understanding, more concern, more respect. We are all in this together, no one of us is getting out alive. And we all want the same thing, to walk through our door at the end of the day.
Maybe tomorrow as you idle through a construction zone, you’ll take a peek at the face below the hard hat holding up the sign asking you to slow down. And maybe you’ll begin to wonder what his name is and whether he’s married. Any maybe, just maybe, you’ll begin to see the human, the person that’s just like you.
So, this is my diatribe, Dear Tribeless. And, to quote from Jim Jeffries, “We can all do better.”