love is in the glare

I admit that drivers often piss me off. They generally ignore the fundamental principle that a pedestrian always has the right of way. Throw in the fact that I'm doing the planet a favor by choosing to walk rather than drive, and their sense of entitlement becomes even harder to bear.

It's understandable, we live in a society where, thanks to nonstop automobile and fuel industry propaganda, car ownership is associated with personal freedom and economic mobility. There's also a mania that seems to grip people when they get behind the wheel, replacing common sense with an overwhelming need to hurry wherever they're going.

I buck that bs. If you nose your car into an intersection to try to intimidate me into waiting for you to turn, I'll slow down my stride (which is usually pretty snappy) and glare back at you with eyes that say, "F*ck you, you're going to have to wait."

I did that today, while wearing a shirt that spells out L-O-V-E rather prominently. It might have passed for ironic, or it might have diminished the message a wee bit.

In other news, there was a wedding in the park across from my apartment this afternoon. Real love, or that brand of love we call real, was in the air, and it didn't smell at all like exhaust.