Surprise Five

Today I was riding home from work, and as per usual I was cutting a little traffic here and there on the 405. I wasn't going to much faster than the traffic because there is no need when I'm on my way home from work. It is not like I am going to be late or something. Anyway,  as I was coming around the section leading up to the 101 connection, which has a lazy left hand curve to it, not more than fifteen feet in front of me I saw a small hand reach out the passenger-side window of the car I was about to pass.. and the palm was facing backward. I could not see the face, but when I saw the hand I could not resist. As I passed by, I stuck out my hand and gave them five.

It is not often you have contact with someone else on the road. You are often in a large mass of humanity, each in your own personalized containers. Interactions between people are scarce, and even more scarce are the day to day interactions that we would otherwise share. This split second interaction opened my eyes a little bit to what we may be missing. Not that I expect people will be passing mustard between cars during rush hour. But I do wonder what it would be like if we all became a little more social during our commutes.