The idiot behind the wheel
Some of the streets can be quite busy here in Chiang Mai. But it’s almost always possible to swiftly move away from them. The city is filled with cozy backyard cafés and restaurants.
I discovered such a place today by coincidence, which is usually how I find those gems. Stepping away from the traffic chaos and into that garden was like stepping into another world. Such a relief.
It’s also a good analogy for how we can quiet down another kind of chaos, our thoughts. That inner traffic is often more intense than the outer one. It’s rush hour 24/7.
Luckily, it’s us behind the wheel. We have the power to ease off the gas a little. We have the option to switch off cruise control.
We can’t stop thoughts from appearing, just like we can’t avoid drivers behaving like maniacs. What we can do, though, is stop attaching ourselves to those thoughts as if they were absolute and crucial truths.
They’re not. They’re thoughts.
What good will it do us to keep feeding the thought about an idiot driver who passed us ten minutes ago? Is it important that we keep ruminating on this long gone event?
If our answer to that is yes, well, then we’re the idiot behind the wheel.