Jockeying for Position - Shirley S. Tye

And they're off! Yes, it's Christmas and drivers are jockeying for parking spots. Right there in front of the coffee shop. It was like watching two rams lock horns. Okay, they weren't rams but a 4X4 truck - a mean looking thing at that - and a mini van.

The 4X4 driver raced to a spot next to the building just outside the window where I was sitting; a spot where later he'd have to back out into busy plaza traffic. Now with his bird's eye view from his high cab you'd think he'd have noticed the two convenient drive-through parking spots just a few yards over. It would have been easy to drive the truck straight into the spot and later drive straight out; no backing up required; one simple move.

The driver had just gotten the truck nose turned and aimed at the spot when he realized a mini van was already backing into the same spot. Obviously he saw the spot but not the back-up lights of the van. The irritated truck driver leaned hard on the horn. The van driver was oblivious to the sound and continued backing. I could almost hear him singing 'Da dump, da dump, da, da, da, da, dump' or did I hear him singing that silly little Christmas song 'Grandma Got Run Over by the Reindeer'. Now there's a song to capture the Christmas spirit. Soon they came to logger heads - okay, more precisely nose to butt. Gross, you say? Exactly! Peace and goodwill were non-existent. Crazy, you say? Well, maybe just narrow visioned; the 'me syndrome' showed up again.

Oh, you want to know who won the coveted spot? Funny thing, the aggressive 4X4 driver lost because the van driver was persistent or perhaps just blind to the fact that there are others in the world.

Someday there will be peace on earth but not today.

May peace reign at least in your corner of the world.

Merry Christmas!