The Unpopular Perspective of Carlo on Traffic
I guess it’s safe to assume that before the rise of the “now” generation, traffic is just… traffic. Simple and with only one meaning, but as time goes by and as new lingos are discovered, glorified and buried, the word traffic evolved into something everyone can use, despise, be angry at, and blame for all our urban-shortcomings.
I’m actually amazed how our collective anger towards the word traffic, made it come to life. It’s as if every “F**K”, “B*LLS*T” and whatnots actually gave it its limbs, heart and skin.
Okay fine, let’s all assume that the birth of our modern-day protagonist (traffic) happened years ago, and it’s now out there, fully grown, breathing, smoking pot, spotifying and having a good time while he’s wrecking our lives. The thing is, (and I know not all of you are with me on this) TRAFFIC never stole anything from us. Logically speaking, traffic never stole any of our precious time. Your time, is right there on your wrist ticking as you choose to waste it and your energy whining, ranting and letting everybody know how pissed you are because you’re stuck…… well, with everybody else. I seriously think that it takes a lot of courage and acceptance to understand the facts and look at TRAFFIC from a different, uncommon and unpopular perspective.
Truth of the matter is, traffic is just putting us on a different scenario, on a different setting where your time is still your time and it’s still up to you how you’ll use or in this case, waste it.
Dear, I know you won’t agree with me, but traffic isn’t really the culprit here. FOR ME (emphasis is needed here because I have been cursed many times because of my unusual perspective on things) the real reason why we’re so pissed and miserable when we’re stuck in traffic is because of the fact that we’re ALL slowly losing our ability to adapt to situations beyond our control. Our hatred and the gargantuan amount of negativity that we invest towards our enemy, traffic, is mainly because of our inabilities and not because of it stealing something so precious from us, in this case our time.
Dear, traffic will be here for a very looooong time. And choosing to veer on the side of hatred and negativity will not only “consume” your time, but also your emotions, energy and “brainspace”. Traffic is not going to dissipate with our collective-hatred towards it. You’re not helping yourself, your cyber-brethren, and this traffic-stricken country by ranting and exalting the ugly side of this already dreadful situation. Like it or not, we will be living too closely with traffic all our lives and our ranting only shows that our fictional, modern-day protagonist is winning and we (homo-sapiens) are losing.
Traffic will become more bearable if we look at it from a different perspective. If we can only look at it as an opportunity to be more connected with ourselves, the city we’re in, and with our emotions. If we can only realize that right at this very moment while we’re stuck, we’re actually in sync with everybody else. That traffic is the perfect time to humble ourselves and that no matter how thunderous our sports car roar and how important our meeting is, we are all equal and we are all stuck right here right now.
When was the last time you actually took notice of your city? That despite of the rubble in front of you, it’s actually beautiful, full of life, breathing and full of love. When was the last time you actually felt how slow life can be? When was the last time you did nothing but listen to your favorite music, talk to your mom, browse the pictures on your wallet and just be forced to appreciate what you have within the small confines of your vehicle. When was the last time you actually accepted the fact that you’re not in control. And you never were.
Traffic is consuming our lives because we’re letting it to. Traffic is and will always be that protagonist who made you miss your date, who made you miss your meeting. But at the other end of the spectrum, YOU AND I will always be that arrogant control-freak who’s too bratty, spoiled and forever blinded thinking that things will get better if we continue hating traffic and looking at it from this common and very comfortable perspective.
I know traffic is complicated and a thousand times bigger than any of us, but with the right perspective and attitude, we can actually be in living terms with it. Don’t let it win. Don’t let it consume you. Open your mind press play and waste your time wisely.