Round 2 - Red light, time to smile!

Green means go, yellow means "watch out for cars!" and red means STOP! So I did. On the intersection of my house, coming back from the grocery store, with myself. I had been waiting on the turn, green light on, for a chance to make the left but traffic never cleared before the red would make me assess my exact placement on the intersection.

Normally there are no pedestrians so very rarely do I care whether if I am on the crosswalk or not.

Today there was a man that looked like he was expecting no good from anyone. He didn't seem surprised when he noticed that I had stopped smack in the middle of his crosswalk. I chose to move the car and clear the path for him. He looked numb. The kind if glassy eyes of survival. No matter if he was in too much pain to acknowledge what I had done, it felt good to acknowledge him and his right to walk on a straight line to the other side of the road.

Call it instant gratification: as soon as I was done following his footsteps to the other corner, as if my eyes were secretly helping him walk, I turned and this white van was passing right in front of me and the driver had the brightest, happiest smile. He had the look that he was loving life in that particular instant. When he saw me looking and enjoying his grin he made it even bigger and waived. I did the same. The light went green for me and so I drove off with a smile on my face.

Say cheese! - C.