In the post-pandemic world, many of us don't have a commute every day. With Steve on vacation, this seemed like a good editorial to republish and get you to think about your world today. Maybe your commute is 5 minutes across the house. What do you think about then?

I am not sure how long your commute is to work each day. I recently changed jobs and my commute time doubled as my new position is all the way across town. I went from going 15 miles (24km) into work every day, to going 30 miles (48km) instead. I found myself with more time during my commute and some questions came to mind. Now I am sure there are some of you that have a lot further to go to get to work, but that isn’t what I wanted to talk about today.

I was driving to work a last month. Yes, I live in the U.S. and like a lot of people here, I drive to work. Anyway, I started thinking about what do other people do or think about during their commute. I know there are many people that take the bus or the train to work. Certainly this is true in other countries, still there are many here in the states that take mass transit also. So for them there is a whole range of things they could possible do on the way into work. Sleep, eat, read, do work (yuck!). Clearly for people driving, most of their attention needs to be on the roads and on what is going on around them.

As for me, I have my normal routine. I leave early. Usually not long after 6:00am, I am on the road. It seems if I can leave by 6:10 traffic isn’t too bad on the way in. I usually have my radio on, although not too loud. I tend to pray, think about the day. Yes, sometimes I do think about work. Then it occurred to me. What are all these other people doing? Who are they? Where did they come from? Where are they going? What is their story? What are they thinking about?

It amazes me how many people there are each day travelling to work. I am sure that some of you, that take a bus or train, see some of the same people every day. Perhaps you have the opportunity and have the boldness to talk with them and get to know them. For me, I don’t even get past seeing just cars. Rarely, do I look past the vehicle to person inside. I am just trying to get safely to work/home and avoid the crazies.

Recently some of my thoughts on the way in to work were:

Why did that person just cut me off? What is going on in their life that they acted that way? Do they really think they are so much more important than me that they are trying to run me off the road? Why do they think it is okay to drive so far over the speed limit and endanger everyone around them? Why is that person riding my bumper?

These are some of the things I have thought about during my commute. Sometimes these thoughts help me understand my follow commuter. Sometimes they just help past the time.

Share what you think about or do during your commute.