In my line of work, I deal with a lot of upsetting news, controversy and conflict. It can be emotionally exhausting, so I make a habit of trying to find small joys where I can.
One of those happy places, believe it or not, is in traffic.
While driving home from work, I often try to let in motorists who are trying to merge into traffic in front of me, as long as it does not create a hazard or seriously inconvenience the driver behind me. Typically, I get a “thank you” wave, and I think, “There goes someone who benefited from the kindness of a stranger.” That gives me a moment of joy.
Driving home Monday evening was a bear. Two traffic lights at major intersections were not functioning, probably because of the storm Sunday night. There was a heavy flow of traffic from all directions—motorists trying to turn against two lanes of traffic and others just trying to get through the intersection.
What I saw was drivers cooperating. No one was honking their horn or speeding through or blocking the intersections. The motorists were downright orderly as they navigated what could have been complete chaos.
It was a small thing, but it struck me how all these strangers recognized the problem and, without consulting each other or having someone tell them what to do, figured out how to act in a way that benefited everyone.
Too often, especially in today’s highly polarized culture, cooperation is associated with weakness or incompetence. If you compromise, you have given in. That has unfairly given cooperation a bad name.
Our human species learned early on that it could not survive without cooperating and learning from others. Today, those instincts are less about survival, but they are still there, just waiting to be used.
British author and philosopher Bertrand Russell believed that our ability to work with others was essential to our very being. “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation,” he said.
Now, I get it. Letting another driver into traffic does not rise to the level of saving your soul. But it demonstrates that we have the ability to set aside our own interests for the benefit of someone else. There is a collective power in the millions of miniscule acts of cooperation that occur every day.
The joy of cooperation is out there, and sometimes found in the least likely places. That’s something to think about the next time you’re stuck in traffic.