If someone lets your car in while in slow traffic...WAVE in thanks.

While growing up, I was taught manners: saying “please” and “thank you” was as common as taking a breath; holding doors for others was standard issue; standing up and letting a woman have your chair in any given situations was a no-brainer. I was led to believe that these selfless acts were taught to every other person on the planet. Boy, was I wrong.

Whenever I’d do one of these acts, I’d consider a smile or a “thank you” from whomever as my reward of sorts. More often than not, I’d receive my reward. This, in turn, made me feel all good inside and then I could go about my daily routine. So when someone didn’t smile, nod, or give me thanks it kinda rattled me…not much, but just enough to make me think “hmm, that’s kinda odd.”

While I’m out driving, I still try to be chivalrous whenever I can be…but for whatever reason it really pisses me off when people don’t wave in thanks when I let them in front of me.

It’s simple, people. If someone is being nice enough to slow down and let you in, the least you can do is raise your hand and wave “thanks” back to them. It’s easy. Even if you have to put down your damn cell phone to do it, do it. It’s the right thing to do. It’s a nice thing to do. It’s an easy thing to do. And it truly is the one thing that pisses me off more than anything else while I’m driving. I’ll not let someone else in after that for a bit because I’m still steaming after the fact.

For a while I was temporarily memorizing the license plates of the people that waved at me after I let them in. I then conjured up this fanciful plot in which I would have their number traced so that I could get their address, sending them a hand-written note and a hundred dollar bill thanking them for employing a little everyday kindness. In the end, however, I don’t know anyone that could do the tracing nor did I think that people would be cool with the fact that I’d knowingly had them traced to find their home address. The hundred bucks? Sure. Knowing that I’d somehow traced them to their home address? Not so much. Oh well.

So for me, and especially for the person that is being nice to you, the next time that someone lets your car merge or purposefully slows down so that you can change lanes PLEASE wave to them in thanks. It’ll take all of two seconds…and, like it would me, it might restore a little faith in humankind’s ability to be chivalrous.