The Shiny, Red Prius and I

A month ago I was driving home from Kalamazoo with my son, Nathan. Traffic was very heavy, and I had to get into the lane to my left or I would have been stuck in a 'turn right only' lane. There was just enough room, so I put my blinker on and pulled over. However, the instant I put my blinker on, a bright, shiny red Prius tried to speed up to try to block me from getting over. The driver literally laid on the horn, but I kept merging, thinking, “No...I need to get over now...and there’s enough room…” I drove along for a few miles and through several more traffic lights, noticing that the shiny new Prius was RIGHT on my bumper. When it was time for me to turn, the Prius turned right with me and I thought, “Oh, she’s going in the same direction I’m going!” There was a second right turn I was supposed to make, but I missed it because it was sooner than I expected, so I went down the street to the next right turn, thinking I would have to find a spot to turn around. When I made that second right turn, the Prius was still right behind me. I noticed this but was busy looking for a place to turn around. I spotted a driveway and turned left into it. I put the car in reverse and started to back up just as I looked in the rear view mirror – and just as the woman in the bright red Prius laid on the horn again. I slammed on my brakes to avoid backing into her and naively thought, “Oh! I wonder if she lives here and wants to get in her driveway.” She was still laying on the horn and her car was half-turned, which left her blocking both lanes of traffic. She had me pinned in, so I sat there thinking, “Lady, how can I get out of your way when you’ve got me blocked in?” At that point Nathan became irritated. He snapped, "Mom, she's been following you for miles!" then hopped out of the car and went back to yell at the woman in the red Prius. She was a big, blonde woman who opened her car window and the two of them began a shouting match. The windows of my car were barely open so I could hear the loud voices, but I couldn’t make out what was being said. When the shouting match went on long enough to stop several cars in both directions, I got out of my car to see if I could calm things down. But the woman in the red Prius suddenly jammed her car in reverse and took off, special finger high in the air, her words trailing back at me, "Get off the roads...you're dangerous!" When I was finally back home again, I reflected on the whole incident. How could that woman have been so angry that she would follow me for miles, intending to…to what? Yell at me? Why would anyone be so upset at not being able to position themselves 20 feet farther ahead on the road that they would irrationally drive miles out of their way to try to punish the imaginary offender? In the end, I realized that Americans are ridiculously, dangerously angry. I see it in the way people treat one another as if everyone is an enemy, a threat, or a competitor. I hear it in the way people talk to one another with demanding, disdainful or imperious tones and words. I witness it in the way people act out their vengeance, their greed, their selfishness, their fear. I feel it in the arrogance and the automatic assumptions that others bear us nothing but ill-will and judgment. At this point, probably half of the anger is the unrelenting corruption that everyone is swimming in and doesn’t know what to do with. The other half is the diet that people eat that has no nutrition in it. Without plenty of magnesium, you will not want to be touched physically and will become defensive and angry if someone touches you. Without calcium, you will be fatigued, irritable, and impatient. Without potassium, you will not be able to perceive correctly what is really going on around you and will be unable to stay 'present.' Without sodium chloride, you will not be able to recognize patterns or put facts together in a way that alerts you as to proper behavior. Without zinc you literally will have dim sensory input from this reality and will spend an inordinate amount of time in daydreams or outright delusions. Without iron, you will not want to move your body, thus exercise never happens and frustration builds up. And these are only the 6 major minerals. What happens when the major vitamins and the many trace minerals needed are not present either? You get criminal behavior! How can we work together – cooperate, collaborate, communicate – to build a new world if we are all angry? People are NOT bad, they are just sick, mostly from malnutrition. When we are healthy, we are naturally joyful and at peace within the self and with one another. Whether the internet goes down or not, whether the financial system crashes or not, if we want a new world that works better, we're gonna have to get some real food into us...food without GMOs, Round-up, or other harmful stuff in it...and that's just a start. A new world means a lot of personal responsibility!