While driving home from the store one morning this week, I was stopped at a light, and the pickup in front of me was signaling the driver’s intention to turn left from the thru lane, not the marked left turn lane. Sure enough, when the light changed, the truck sat there, while the driver waited for all the cars in the left turn lane to make their turns so he could follow left after them, preventing all the cars behind him from going through the green light.
I was impatient. And judgmental. Of all the stupid things, I thought. You don’t turn left from the lane on the right. I was tempted to lay on my horn.
I immediately realized this was a humility problem. I had forgotten Benedict’s injunction to keep the obedient spirit of humility even under difficult, unfavorable, or unjust conditions. As Jane Tomaine puts it, “to recognize that I cannot always be in control.” *
As I continued toward home, I thought of the distress the driver may have been in; missing that turn meant he would have had to continue straight for another three-quarters of a mile in completely the wrong direction without an easy way to get back to where he wanted to be. It occurred to me that I have been in similar confusing and frustrating situations while driving and, I’m sure, made a few other drivers angry at my desperate attempts to correct my navigation errors.
Benedict’s seventh step of humility tells me that I may not always have the answer and should not hold myself as superior to anyone else. Tomaine defines humility as truthfully and fairly accepting ourselves and other people as they are, which should have a positive influence in our interactions with others with whom we come in contact every day.
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- Jane Tomaine, St. Benedict’s Toolbox. (New York: Morehouse Publishing, 2015), 213-215.
Improbable Benedictine 
This is always a challenge for me…and sometimes I am the offender. Sometimes we aren’t sure where we are going…
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I too find driving challenging. Most of the time I am able to keep my cool. I lived in Wyoming for 14 years with my dear (now departed) husband Lyle. No traffic jams but some very dangerous roads in winter. When encountering frustrating drivers I try to maintain my “Wyoming attitude” and be patient. I too have committed my share of traffic blunders.
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