Things Most People Still Haven’t Quite Figured Out

Some questions are so broad they almost sound like an invitation to start a comedy routine.

“What’s something most people don’t understand?” Where do you even begin?

This feels like a sequel to Bill Engvall and his old “Here’s Your Sign” routine, because honestly, there are days when the list could get long in a hurry.

For example, a surprising number of people still don’t understand how to drive without making every other driver on the road question humanity. If traffic is moving and you decide this is the perfect moment to camp in the passing lane at the speed of drifting moss, people behind you are going to have feelings about that. Likewise, if your turn signal comes on halfway through the turn, you have misunderstood the assignment.

A lot of people also don’t understand how to have a conversation without checking their phone every thirty seconds. If we’re talking and your eyes keep dropping to a screen, there comes a point where I start wondering whether I should text you my side of the conversation so I can hold your attention.

Some people don’t understand that speakerphone was never meant to be used in public like performance art. Others don’t understand that “reply all” should be treated like a loaded weapon.

And somewhere along the way, a lot of people forgot that not every thought needs immediate public release.

But if I move past the comedy list, maybe the bigger answer is this: most people don’t understand how much of life they’re seeing without context. We notice somebody’s attitude, reaction, tone, or bad moment and assume we’ve read the whole story, when usually we’ve only seen one frame of a much longer film.

The older I get, the more convinced I am that nearly everybody is carrying something we cannot see — stress, disappointment, grief, worry, fatigue, regret, pressure, fear, or simply a hard season they haven’t explained to anyone.

So yes, people should absolutely learn how turn signals work. But maybe we should also learn that the person in front of us, whether in traffic or in life, may be dealing with more than we know.

That understanding would probably improve a lot more than traffic.

About Douglas Blaine

Capnpen is a writer who was a newspaper and magazine journalist in a previous life. A college journalism major, he now works as an English teacher, but gets his writing fix by blogging about a variety of topics, including politics, religion, movies and television. When he's not working or blogging, Capnpen spends time with his family, plays a little golf (badly) and loves to learn about virtually anything.

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