My mother taught me not to hate

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When I was a young kid growing up my mom would correct me when I used the word “hate”.

I would say, “I hate this guy at school”. Or when the neighbors played loud music, I would say, " I hate those people".

My mom would always correct me and say, " Don’t hate anyone. You may dislike someone but you should never hate anyone. You don’t really hate them, you’re just angry at them". So I lived by this philosophy.

BUT…JUst lately, a little hate has crept into my life. I don’t like saying it, but I’ve been commuting on our freeways to work for many years. California is known for its rush hour on its roads. I’ve been in bumper to bumper traffic for decades off and on. I’m getting very intolerant of other drivers lately.

I’m not aggressive, I just want to have a semi-peaceful drive to work while I listen to the radio. But people won’t leave me alone. After the 6th or 7th person gets on my tail and acts intimidating I forget about the principles I try to live by. I feel like I’m being bullied and I lose my temper, and I feel a little hatred rise up from my gut. Not a lot, just a little.And I have gotten very mad at people.

And I don’t like feeling that way. So I just think of all the cool people at work I’ve met and talk to, and I think of how cool the people are here and I think of all the strangers who are actually nice. And thinking of all these people makes my hatred go away.

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Your mom must have been a really good person.

My mom is getting angrier by the minute, in traffic I mean, she mellowed out on other areas of life.

Maybe it’s your age :grin:

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My mum taught me similarly nick.

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@77nick77, Your mother taught you well, but It makes me wonder had she driven the freeways much- or in the last, say, ? 4 years?

I drive regularly to Sacramento, Oakland, and San Francisco, and too many people drive like an asshat on their way to hell.
Think I’d have to say I HATE the Bay area drivers- and that rush hour traffic- why do they call it that when all it does is crawl at 5mph- and you have to consider yourself lucky just to MOVE along at 1 mph?
It took me 4 1/2 hours to drive to Oakland- and it’s normally a 45 minute drive! Round trip it was over 9 hours.

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Wow, I’m impressed. That’s a lot of driving. I used to go to Sacramento before I had a car so I would take Amtrak there.