Rear View Mirror

I'm a firm believer in looking ahead, and not looking back. There is something optimistic about the future and all that is ahead. But these last few days events have made me stop and think that it is good to glance back once in awhile.

I was driving down a well-traveled road, minding my own business. I was in that space where time stands still, and I was moving and flowing with the traffic. I'm always checking my mirrors to see what is going on. I live in a tourist town, and the visiting snow birds puts all of us here in high alert. It is not unusual to see cars doing U-turns and ending up on the sidewalk or people stopping in traffic, to ask directions. My kids call elderly drivers "q-tips", because all you can see is the white tops of their heads. These sweet sweet grandparents we all love become lethal on streets far from their familiar surroundings.

So, I'm slowing down at a stop light and I glanced in my mirror. A woman was wiping tears from her face. She was crying! Now, I have had many good cries in the privacy of my auto. I've always assumed that it was a place I could let it all out, and bother no one, or have anyone bother me. I drove on with one eye on the road ahead, and one eye watching her. She turned later and took her tears down another road.

I stop at the next light and looked in my mirror, and there is another lady wiping away her sorrow. Two different people. Two completely random ladies, with their own random story. I wanted to stop my car, right there in traffic, I wanted to make a U-turn and end up on a sidewalk, just so I could say to either one of them "Why are you crying? Is there anything I can do for you?" I left them with their tears, and the privacy of their autos.

Today, I looked in my rear view mirror, and a lady was holding a hand towel on her right eye. There is so much to see, looking forward, in my rear view mirror.