The Wrong Right
I was backing my car out of a long driveway that has a wall that runs along it. The driveway crosses a sidewalk before going into the street but the wall causes a blindspot for viewing the sidewalk. So I backed out cautiously.
As I reach the end of the wall and come to the sidewalk, I see a woman approaching. She’s not slowing down. She could clearly see me approaching before I saw her. She has the right of way, so I stop to let her pass. I was a little surprised to see her look of irritation and indignation directed at me.
As she passes, I see she’s holding a leash attached to a tiny rat dog scurrying in front of her. She was mad because she had the right of way and I didn’t stop as quickly as she would have liked. It took me making it all the way to the edge of the wall to be able to see her. And even then I couldn’t see her tiny dog. Let me reiterate, I was going slowly and cautiously.
So here’s the thing, she knew she had the right of way and not only was she not willing to slow down for herself, she was having her dog lead the charge. If I wasn’t paying proper attention or maybe was a less experienced driver, her dog would have squashed. But hey, she would have been right.
Being right isn’t always the right choice. The correct choice was for her to ascertain safety for herself and her pet and then proceed. She doesn’t know what kind of driver I am. It would have cost her 10 seconds. I would have either passed or stopped and she could move on. Instead, she endangered her dog and herself and put herself into a bad mood because she was right.
This stuck with me because I frequently do the same thing. I get hung up on being right in a situation that is trivial. There are absolutely situations where you should stand up for yourself. Recognize those times and act accordingly. But don’t sweat the little stuff.
If you can handle the little things with poise, the big things won’t be as big. Your mental well being will be so much better off which correlates to your relationships and your work. Do good work. Don’t get caught up about being right about the wrong things.
Favorite Thing I Drew This Month
I have no idea when this will actually see the light of day but I’ve been working on it. So here’s a sneak peek.
Favorite Thing I Didn’t Draw
DirtyIron18 popped up on my Instagram feed. I don’t know anything about him other than his work is impressive. A lot of the pieces have a supernatural element to them often with an unsettling or eerie vibe. He frequently composes a character as a tiny element in the work giving the piece a massive sense of scale.
What I’m Reading
Michael Grover who I did a 3 Questions With… last year has a new webcomic, Jake Spooky. The first 3 chapters are up. So it’s just getting started. Michael is a true original. The art is lightly animated and there’s a soundtrack playing along as you read. Really innovative stuff. I loved his Hamburglar Goes to Hell.
Family Stuff
Sophia’s mom came to visit so we went to the Grand Canyon. I’d seen it about 30 years ago on a cross country trip where we stopped for a few hours. I was honestly a bit underwhelmed then but quite enjoyed it this time. Probably because we had more time this trip. The weather was perfect mid 70s and the park wasn’t too busy. I think because schools have started back up so not a ton of family vacationers.
On the flight home, the captain invited River into the cockpit where he got to welcome everyone aboard over the loudspeaker.
Sophia and I also celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary. Or as Sophia put it, that time we threw a big party. We went to a nice restaurant with the kids and walked around the reservoir afterwards. A lovely low-key celebration.
River and Mom had a fun craft day where he got to make his first baking soda and vinegar volcano. Required childhood experience unlocked. Sophia also added dish soap into the mix so that it would foam more. Who knew? Probably lots of people but I hadn’t heard of it before. So add that to your concoction next time.
That’s it for this month. Next month, the world’s biggest ditch! Thanks for reading.
-Josh
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