You are walking down the street with your dog. It doesn’t seem like there is another person on the face of the earth. But three of you, all with dogs, show up at the same corner at the same time and jockey around to see who will pass and how.
You are driving down a lonely stretch of road. You haven’t passed another care in the last 5 minutes. You get to an intersection and there are three cars and a struggle to decide who gets to go first. Then you don’t pass another car for 10 minutes.
You are in a practically empty store. The one thing at which you want to look has someone standing right in front of it. For a long time. And you grow weary of pretending to take interest in toothbrushes while you await your turn.
There are (basically) two ways to handle this. One is to get frustrated and angry. (I preferred this method for a long time and to which I still sometimes revert when not at my best game.) “You’ve got to be kidding me! God, is this a test? Oh come on! This is ridiculous! What are the chances? People are so annoying!”
The others is to take as a test. “Well, this is very odd yet again. Okay God, I posit from this that you are paying attention to me because of the weird circumstances and that you want me to learn something from this. What is it?” And then (to the best of your ability) enjoy the moment by discerning what it might be. (Hint: If you are still frustrated or annoyed, there is still something to learn.)
The second option may seem a bit much to expect but the alternative is to be angry and frustrated. And it really is up to you. So choose.
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