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Julie Cohen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist MFT and a Child Mental Health Specialist with a private practice in Los Angeles Her areas of focus include depression anxiety panic post-traumatic stress bipolar…
FAST FACTS
I witnessed something unbelievable the other day while driving to work. If you happen to be familiar with the freeways around Los Angeles (some of the nations busiest) you know that regardless of your strength in character they will inevitably bring out the worst in you. I am no exception. It is not uncommon for me to leave the house happy but upon entering "the 101" towards the city I break out into a host of expletives and think everyone on the road around me is an idiot. It's a typical experience for most Angelinos.
However, a few days ago on my way to work I started on the freeway and initially I was greeted with the normal stop and go traffic. About a minute later I noticed a police car next to me and then two lanes over was a paramedic truck. Suddenly I noticed in front of me a dog in the middle of 6 lanes running with traffic. All the cars around me came to a stop and then began moving with the pace of the dog. The dog, a 50 pound short hair black/brown pit mix set the pace for the entire east bound 101 freeway.
Next, all the drivers seemed to band together to save this little guy. People jumped out of their cars with blankets and leash looking items trying to lure him to safety. Unfortunately, he was very skittish and every time someone approached he would take off running again. So everyone would get back in their cars and drive a few more yards till he would stop and again people would jump out and try to catch him. Some folks even jumped onto the fire truck to catch a ride to the next spot the dog stopped.
For those like me, who did not get out of our cars, we used our cars to slowly move him towards the side of the freeway making a barrier so he couldn't turn and run the other way into on-coming traffic. It was slow and graceful as if we were a "car ballet." Eventually, the dog did move to the side of the freeway and actually exited on an off-ramp. The police and other random cars blocked the exit and all took off on foot to catch him. A happy ending!
It was amazing to watch all of these people from different backgrounds and cultures come together. Most of these folks including myself face-off against each other daily on this same route but now in this moment and for a moment they formed a community and really without any words just went into action and saved a being. I wish we could find a way to harness that kind of positive regard and energy into our daily lives and sustain it for longer than a few minutes at a time. It reminded me of the importance of volunteering and how coming together for a common cause heals all of us. I wish that they could post signs along the freeway that reminded us that the person next to you potentially could save your life; be kind!
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They seem to know when you save them, and love you for it..
Wouldn't it be interesting to know if the dog in your story were God's ironic way of bringing such a diverse group of people together for a common good? A disciple sent to do God's work, in dog's clothing, as it were.
You got that right! And they are idiots. (but in all fairness, most of them don't have drivers licenses, grin!) But it's nice to hear stories like that. People will never change though. They, as you hinted, do go back to the way they were. I don't have an answer either. Only that it would be nice if there were no people. They make a mess of everything. Leave the world to all the other animals then there would be no need to worry about them getting run over on the freeway.
ps. have you thought of talking to your city councilman (or whom ever) to get signs like you mentioned. They have every other type of sign here, haha. Like those adopt a road signs. Yours sound like a better idea.