Tounge Sticker Outers

So, as I was driving down the highway today, I was in the left lane going about 10 mph over the speed limit as I usually do. So this lady in a Honda Pilot starts getting on my tail. After a while of her tailing me, she finally gets in the lane nexts to me and speeds by me. As I usually do, I glared over only to find this middle aged woman, well maybe 60 year old woman in her little Honda Pilot, looking over at me and sticking her tounge out at me while shaking her head. My first thought was, really? really lady? You don't flick me off, you don't honk, you don't wave your arms at me, but you stick your tounge out at me? Well, I got annoyed that this lady thought she was so bad ass, and I honked at her. I showed her!

So I realized, there are so many situations that make you act unlike yourself. Even the nicest people can be angry and mean! It's human nature. Human nature is a weird thing, does everyone have certain things in common? Is everyone mean sometimes, does everyone get angry, does everyone get sad? Where does this come from? This can all go back to the nature vs. nurture debate. But have people always been this way? Or has human nature changed over time? Are we all "tounge sticker outers" deep down?

Situations change us. Team events make us competitive, arguing makes us mean, family events make us loving. People are not just one face, people have multiple faces, and different situations bring out different faces in all of us. I don't think this has ever changed, just the situations that cause these changes have changed. A long time ago, people might have argued about gathering food, or what land to settle in, and I bet back then someone stuck their tounge out at someone else (or whatever they used to do). Even the famous Shakespeare line, "I bite my thumb at you," shows this same sort of action. And today maybe it's traffic that makes you stick your tounge out, or a bad grade. And there is no way that everyone who does these things is secretly a bad person at heart. The most important thing is, you have to learn to control your faces, and not let your emotions get the best of you. Competition is good in moderation, being mean isn't good even if someone else is mean first. Unfortunately, human nature cannot always control our actions, and sometimes this means a middle aged women will stick her tounge out at me.