Road rage.

I was turning into a busy parking lot from an even busier highway recently. I waited and waited, and when I saw a slight opening I went for it...only to see a guy walking across the entrance.

I hit my brakes but now I was stuck in the lane of the oncoming traffic, unable to move forward until he cleared the entrance.

Instead of hustling through to let me proceed, he stopped and gave me the finger and refused to move.

Now the cars behind me and in front of me are hitting their brakes and we're all waiting for Mr. Walker to move on. He decided to up his game and began yelling at me with some very flowery language.

I considered my options and none of them were good, or necessarily something you'd expect from a grown man. I was going to say a mature man, but who are we kidding.

At that moment, I experienced what is commonly called road rage. It's an intense emotional response to a situation that far outweighs the seriousness of the situation, and it is dangerous.

About a mile from where my incident happened, a friend of mine experienced road rage that almost turned deadly. The car in front of him wasn't moving into the open acceleration lane so, after a few seconds of waiting, he honked his horn.

The guy in the car in front of him exited his car waving a handgun.

People experience road rage because of perceived disrespect, a feeling of loss of control, stress overflow, a surge of adrenaline caused by perceived danger, and it's all heightened by anonymity. In our cars we are hidden and protected. Until we aren't.

I was the cause of my guys rage, and his instant raging caused my emotions to rise and I became somebody that I didn't recognize. My mistake was interpreted as a deliberate attempt to run him over, which caused him to overreact which caused me to overreact, and the situation turned dangerous in so many ways. Fortunately, I kept my rage internalized and he soon moved out of the way and we all went on about our day, albeit with faster heartbeats.

Is this necessary or healthy or even normal? No! And there are a few things you and I can do to minimize our own road rage.

First, assume the best about the other guy. He wasn't deliberately being stupid and he had no intention of ruining your day. Second, remember that you make mistakes too, and extend grace. Perhaps the person is a new driver, or an older person, or they are unfamiliar with the highway. Or maybe they just found out their spouse has a serious illness and they are distracted. Everybody has a thousand things on their mind, and cutting you off on the highway was not on their list of things to do.

Control what you can, and move on. It's literally not the hill to die on.