Maybe do overthink before you speak

Overthinking leads nowhere good so I have tried to stop. Occasionally however I’ve had cause to wonder if the overthinking was in part a self-protection mechanism. A couple of weeks ago I went to get petrol. There was a minor runof-the-mill near-miss incident between a taxi and another car and the taxi driver went ballistic. No-one and nothing got hit. Still, at the pump behind me as I filled my car he kept shouting almost random obscenities. Just stood there roaring curses.

I like a good swear, obviously there are times when “fiddlesticks” just doesn’t cut it. But five minutes of roared effing, c-ing everything, especially when nothing actually happened and the “offender” had left, gets wearing. It was a self-indulgent overreaction and strangely violent. So I asked him to stop.

Had I thought about it I wouldn’t have said anything because the rather inevitable did happen, he started roaring at me instead. It started with how I could F off and went from there. It was so full-on angry, I know, what was I expecting? But the words had just come out when I wondered why that horrible little man thought it was OK to scream violence like that.

He was shouting an effing explanation at the cashier when I went in to pay and he turned round and started shouting at effing me again when he saw me. I told him again that I did see what happened, nothing much, and that either way it wasn’t cool to screech obscenities. I added some distraught small children in the back of my car to underscore my point, and for the benefit of our assembled audience. He effed for good measure and stomped off. Outside he was looking into my car, “I don’t see any kids.” Nope, but everyone in the shop thinks they’re there.

Seriously though, should that nutjob be driving a taxi?