Bring the Blinker Back

Although I have not made any new year resolutions myself, I have a proposal for the people of the world: let's bring the blinker back - please! I am referring to the appropriate use of the car turn signal aka "blinker." In the last year, I have really seen a decline in driving ability around me, and one of the biggest pet peeves has been the incorrect and most times, non-use of the blinker altogether. C'mon, it's really not that hard people. I will even make a prediction that better use of the car blinker can help create peace on earth...

First of all, I think it's important to identify the purpose of the blinker. The reason we have this function in our vehicles is for the simple and important task of letting other drivers know where we are going - whether they are behind us or coming towards us. The blinker is one of the few car-to-car communication devices we have to use. The other two features that help us communicate with others on the road are the headlights/brakes and the horn. That's it - so, if you think about it - if we can master these three features together, we'll be communicating a whole lot better with one another on the road, which I think would inevitably lead to more peace on the earth.

I think more appropriate use of the blinker will result in fewer angry outbursts and horn blaring - which will therefore create less stress and induce fewer road rage incidents and accidents - in other words "peace on earth." I see the constant "blinker negligence" occurring on our roads - drivers brake suddenly, the drivers behind must act quickly to avoid a crash only to learn that the driver was just making a turn. A little heads up would help us all out. The flip side of not alerting drivers to your intentions by the small, easy flick of a blinker switch to indicate your next move is that blinkers are either accidentally left on, or there is a long drawn out blink and move - again, it's about the appropriate use, striking the delicate balance if you will. I don't know about you, but I was taught to blink, turn around and look behind me, and then change lanes or merge. All too often, I think blinker negligent drivers are eliminating 2 steps too many, or worse yet, messing with the order of the procedure. It's all about communication - I can't stress that enough.

How can we know that you are having inter-relational problems within your car, or you're nursing a bad transmission, or you're 104 years old and can't see where you're going unless you activate the Hazard blinkers to let us know? Let's work together people - let's start using our blinkers the way we were taught, or the way we were supposed to be taught, and start working towards peace on the roads, which, I think we'll find, will lead to peace in other areas of our lives. We can prevent unnecessary horn blaring with a simple "look at me, I'm blinking because I would like to go this way" rather than cutting across 4 lanes of traffic and giving everyone around you a mild heart attack while you receive a 21 finger salute...

In conclusion - let's face it, we need to communicate better with one another. We need to exercise our own blinkers in our day to day lives with one another, giving each other some forewarning before we jerk the wheel and slice across traffic trying to make an exit or suddenly decide to turn down an unexpected road of life. And when we're not feeling well, we need to let others close to us see that our "Check Engine" light is on. Let's be more visible to one another and put the head lights on, rather than going through life trying to be invisible, and only drawing attention to ourselves when something slams into us and sends us to the body shop. Instead of driving like maniacs, continuously in a hurry, let's not forget to obey the laws of traffic, stay alert and act courteously to each other. You can't say you've never gotten warm fuzzies from letting someone in front of you that really needs the help - the ol' "blink and wave" technique - let's do our best to keep that going.

Blink for peace on earth.