A Little Kindness Please....

I wrote this blog post in my head as I was driving to work and then I spent most of the day scheduling social media for Leadership Knoxville, Intro Knox, and Connect Knox and many of the posts revolved around the LK18 Lead with Kindness Initiative and their week of kindness happening in June. It's funny when my personal thoughts overlap with the work day in this way.

As I left for work today, I forgot Lyons View Pike was closed this morning and I am guessing that I wasn't the only one because there was a weird traffic jam on Northshore Drive trying to get to the interstate.




As far as I could tell, most of the cars were in the same situation and just trying to regroup and get to work. I say regroup because if anyone is like me, they and their car are on auto-pilot and the car automatically hangs a right onto Lyon's View to head downtown.

As we headed for the interstate ramp, there was a truck that drove the length of Northshore from Kingston Pike almost to the ramp with his blinker on just trying to merge right and no one would let him over. There were ample opportunities for folks in the right lane to see this truck and yet, he almost didn't get to merge. It was like the cars ahead of me were purposefully not letting him in.

Why not let the man merge?

It's Monday. We're all tired. We just want school to be out because these last weeks are so disruptive. We wanted to stay in bed instead of get up and get to work. I understand but it's no reason not to let the man merge.

I watched this behavior on the interstate too. People trying to merge left so they head downtown and not to the by-pass. I saw people trying to merge right to head toward 275 and cars not making room or adjusting.

Why can't we be kind to one another?

It sounds silly but kindness isn't just buying a coffee or donating to charity or using our manners. It would be a great act of kindness to let folks merge on the interstate.

Are we mad at the man trying to merge because he's trying to merge? Did he wait too late? Should he have been more aggressive? Are we literally just completely unaware of the man in the truck with the blinker?

What is the reasoning behind not letting him over?

And why can't we be kind?

This morning, I was frustrated but I've been thinking about kindness for a good bit of the day and I don't think all is lost.

Can we be kind?

I think we can. I think we can change our thoughts to look for ways to be kind. In fact, I know that we can do it. I know that we can change our ways to be kind every day - in all situations.

Letting the man merge is a great place to start. :)

See you on the roads! K