An Innocent Mistake

When I was at an appointment tonight after work, I parked on Clinton Street near Bloor. When I got back to my car, there was a note on my windshield (edited for content, if you get my drift):

"Hey A$$#0le, See that lane you're parked in front of? That's a DRIVEWAY! Move your car! Merry F*$%ing Christmas!"

So, I looked around. Lane? what lane? Uh oh.

Sure enough, I'd parked in front of someone's driveway. I hadn't seen it at all. I felt very apologetic. The worst of it possibly was that it wasn't really even just 'someone's' driveway but actually the driveway to a parking lot of an 8-plex type apartment complex. I almost wish that I could have knocked on someone's door just to explain that I didn't do it to be jerky - that it was just an honest mistake. In fact, when I pulled into that space there was so much room around that I could have parked in any of 3 other spaces. I really just didn't even see the driveway.

So, I wasn't really upset about the note or anything. It was a little harsh but I would have been equally angry if I was the person who's driveway was blocked. In fact, it made me wonder if perhaps I should get quite so angry at the anonymous folks who appear to be doing things that are jerky. Maybe they really just made a mistake. You know - don't attribute to malice what could be attributed to ignorance. I wondered if people would be better off if they could actually meet fact-to-face with the people who'd upset them and if they got an apology.

Next time somebody does something that really gets me angry, I hope I can think that it was just an innocent mistake.

If you're out there - and I blocked your driveway tonight - I'm really, really sorry!

Talk to you later,

B.