Stop

My friend and I headed back to the office after lunch. A car ran a stop sign right in front of us. I quickly slowed our car. Just as both of us got back to a proper speed, they abruptly turned without a blinker. I got a little heated about it. This stupid jerk, doing dumb-stupid-jerk stuff, was RUINING MY DAY. Where could this idiot be going in such a stupid hurry that they couldn’t even stop at a stop sign?

My passenger interrupted my eloquent speech on people needing to pay more attention to inform me I had just run a stop sign. Of course, it wasn’t my fault. 1. The idiot did idiot stuff and distracted me. 2. I was navigating an obnoxiously complicated construction zone. 3. I normally stop at all stop signs.

This is one of those traits many of us share that has a fancy name. Psychologists call it Attribution bias or Fundamental Attribution Error. When other people make mistakes, it is a personality defect. When I make mistakes, it is justified by the conditions of the situation I am in.

Everyone has reasons. Everyone has moments of forgetfulness. For every self-justified mistake I make, I am the heartless jerk in someone else’s story.

Where should I have more compassion for the actions of others? Can I assume they made a simple mistake? Will I approach situations in a more charitable way?

Be curious, be kind, be whole, do good things.