[reason 123] there are worse things

When the person behind me honked their horn as I let a truck merge in front of me, I thought to myself that either that person must be in a much greater hurry than I am, or that they're just more impatient than I am. Traffic was nearly at a standstill at that point anyway, so I didn't see anything wrong with letting someone who was literally at work driving a tractor trailer truck go ahead of me.

That morning I had felt the need to pull over in front of our house to make sure we had everything with us. I didn't feel rushed, and did a fair share of letting people merge in front of me when we reached construction zones and slower areas of the highway. When we came to a complete stop, I wondered what was going on ahead of us. 

Eventually that complete stop was really a complete stop. I rolled down my window and then turned my car off. No use in wasting gas. Ten minutes turned into twenty, and then into thirty. I watched as a bunch of people cleared debris from the road as emergency vehicles arrived and police and others discussed what to do. 

As we sat there, Onyx and I discussed how close we might have been to having been part of that accident. Had I not stopped to double check that we had everything ... had I not let others in front of us throughout our journey ... had we been just moments ahead of where we were ... 

To the person behind us who honked more than once - I wish nothing less for you than to learn patience and grace. Nowhere you need to be and nothing you need to do holds more value than the life of the person who had been in that demolished cab or the safety of your neighbors as fuel spills were dealt with and the roadway was cleared. There are worse things than being late.