Action, Reaction

As I was headed to campus for a meeting last night, everything was as it should be during my familiar commute. As usual, my car windows were down and my music was in sync with my vocal expressions. Just as I started to fall into a hypnotic state of driving, a strange result of a repetitive driving route, I noticed some activity to my right.

Front yards provide a blank slate for advertisements. Anything that takes place in this location is open to the public. This is especially the case for those living on a highly-trafficked street. Understanding this concept brilliantly were the four students that caught my eye. However, it wasn’t so much the human beings that grabbed my attention, but the large sign they had created for their front lawn. “You honk. We drink.” Sure enough, each person had a beer bottle in his hand while kicking around a soccer ball.

My initial reaction was laughter, followed quickly by a brief debate regarding my reaction to the sign. Should I honk? I do work at the school. Is that appropriate? What if they are minors? I don’t want to promote underage drinking. How many have they had? Will I be promoting binge drinking? As soon as those thoughts sabotaged my brain, I think I may have hesitated only momentarily before I smiled and honked my horn. Not once, but approximately SIX times!

Part of me enjoyed their sense of humor and wanted to honor their initiative to engage the public in their reindeer games, but another part of me enjoyed knowing the outcome of my action, or lack thereof. The sign didn’t tell me that I had to honk my car horn; it just told me what would happen if I did. It was my choice, either way. While I’m not sure I would always want to know the reaction to my actions because of the predictability factor, I think it would alleviate some of the uncertainty associated with making choices. Even knowing, however, doesn’t make room for the unexpected. And that is worth knowing. Right?