Last Wednesday morning I was driving on a four-lane highway headed back to the Columbus airport when I smelled burning rubber. If you are like me when renting a car, you check out all the basics but may not know what’s going to appear on the dashboard screen when there is trouble; however, no icons were flashing at me as the smell grew worse. Then bits of rubber from a shredding tire on the truck in front of me started hitting the windshield. Luckily there was no damage, and before I could do anything to alert the driver, he turned at the stoplight and seemed to keep going. He didn’t know.
How many times do we leave things in our wake that we don’t know about? That we cut someone off in traffic without realizing it. How what we said was taken wrong and there are stunned or confused expressions on colleagues’ faces as we walked away. When we interrupted something important to those involved with something we considered more important. I’ve seen it happen when there is a sense of entitlement. Maybe it comes with age or with authority, but I’ve noticed a tendency in myself to not be aware of or honor what I’m interrupting. And, worse, to not be concerned with the fact that there may be consequences to my actions.
There’s nothing wrong with keeping focused on what’s ahead. It can be important though, to periodically check on what we’ve left behind.
Marilyn
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