Signs from an intersection

At the corner of Church and North King Street in Dublin, is an intersection with two lanes going north, south, east and west, with an additional two feeder lanes.  This is all watched over by a Daybreak Convenience Store, Baynes and Company Solicitors, a Ramen soup café and the DragonFly Acupuncture Clinic.  I pass by the chaos, a few times a week, after my runs in Phoenix Park.

The juxtaposition between the park and the traffic couldn’t be more striking. 

What I find more interesting than the differences in noise and air quality, is the difference in people’s kindness.  Over in the park everyone is smiling, taking photos of fallen leaves, playing hide and seek with small children, and hand feeding the deer seedless grapes and raisons.  Back at the intersection, the evil side of human nature is on display.

It’s here at this intersection you see the under belly of our species.  Car after car of single, distressed drivers trying to get from their Home Building to their Work Building and back to their Home Building, as quickly as possible.

Driver after driver overtake, nudge, ignore safety rules and take risks hour after hour, and day after day.  Nothing ever changes at the intersection of horror, and everything here is distasteful.  Drivers will risk getting stuck in the box of shame, right in the middle, rather than wait for the light to go green. 

Many drivers don’t believe that the red lights apply to them.

Another thing I find fascinating, is the counter behaviour of pedestrians at this intersection.  Ordinary people, who probably act very reasonably in their work place or at dinner with their family, turn abnormally aggressive, in this part of Dublin.  I’ve seen pedestrians scream, shout, yell, kick out and throw their fists, after close shaves with the drivers, who Must Keep Moving.

One of the crossings has a middle island where the pedestrians can rest. 

People must hover here if the lull in traffic doesn’t last as long as they hoped.  Sadly, there’s only room for one or two brave, intrepid crossers, and definitely not room for three or four.  The recently settled people on the island can’t, or won’t make room for newcomers, which leaves a batch of people on the road, right in the middle of the feeder lane facing the oncoming traffic with only their rage and anger to save them.

The drivers beep their horns, and the pedestrians shout back.

But no one can hear them shouting because the traffic noise is too loud.

Those of us who traverse this intersection often, shake our heads in disbelief, horror and mild amusement.  It happens all the time. If only there were signs there to help people make better choices.  If only there were big, massive green lights and huge, gigantic red lights, to help people get through this intersection safely.

There is a sign on the wall of the post office parcel collection depot that I noticed.

In addition to the many Please Wear Your Mask signs, the new one says:

PLEASE FINISH YOUR CONVERSATION ON YOUR MOBILE PHONE BEFORE YOU APPROACH THE COUNTER

Because now we need to sign up ordinary, decent humanity.

How rude can people be? 

Someone had to make that sign, and tack it to the wall, and hope that people would read it. We must put signs up in public, in order to ask people to behave well.

We must also put up signs to stop them from harming themselves. 

I saw a sign in the supermarket coffee dock, the other day, which said, “please keep your cup upright when scanning at the self-service check out”.

Who are these people that need a sign to tell them to keep their coffee cups upright?

Are they so hopeless, that when they go home, they have a sign on the fridge saying:

PUT FOOD IN YOUR MOUTH AND CHEW.

Is there a sign above their beds saying:

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND SLEEP

Or perhaps one over the toilet that reads:

SHIT HERE, AND THEN WIPE YOUR ARSE WITH THE TOILET PAPER TO YOUR LEFT

I’m sorry. 

I blame November for my grumpiness; I blame the dark nights and the damp.  I blame the billionaires, the liars, and the politicians, who don’t lead and inspire, but who corrupted the garden of Eden, that this could have been. 

Sometimes I look at the evil under the intersection, and I don’t mind that we’re on a trajectory to extinct ourselves.  I think we’ve done too much damage to the planet and to ourselves, to ever make a good recovery.  It’s time for this iteration of humanity to pass quietly away.

We can leave the place to the polar bears, the kittens, and the rabbits, and let them inherit it without the noise, litter, poor air and ruined waters.  They can share it kindly with the monarch butterflies and star fish and sea horses.  Let’s bequeath it to the gentle spider under the street lamp, and a swan on a lake in Shrewsbury.  Let’s leave it to the seagulls in St Steven’s Green, and the ones caught eavesdropping on the quays, in week 10.  Let the seals from the Dun Laoghaire bathing spot, enjoy space and room to play, and let the lemurs, penguins and bears enjoy it all the same.