Because you can

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

- Mahatma Gandhi

This is not an easy standard to live by. I had the opportunity to do so yesterday but I blew it.

I drove by a blind man on my way home from work. He was crossing a three-lane road with the ubiquitous blind man's white stick leading the way. I was in the innermost lane and he was just starting to cross on the outermost lane. I'd just accelerated and I told myself I'm going too fast to stop. I was also talking on the handsfree with Rizal.

He was just starting on the middle lane and I could see out of the corner of my eye, the car next to me in the middle lane slowing down to let him cross. I passed the blind man by more than 6 or 7 feet. I hoped the driver behind me knew to slow down to let him cross.

I looked in my rearview mirror as I came to a stop at a traffic light ahead. He didn't slow down; he passed the blind man by 2 feet. The car behind that driver should have seen the blind man by that time and slowed down because by then, the blind man was already in the innermost lane of the road.

I almost had a heart attack. The second car behind me DID NOT slow down. I don't know if it was because he didn't see the blind man or if he just didn't care. What I saw was the car nudging the blind man's white stick and the car stopping just at the same time the blind man stopped walking. I'm He almost stumbled, but the blind man was still standing and luckily, had stopped walking. It looked as though a collision and an accident had been avoided just in the nick of time.

And that's when I started to feel guilty. I'd seen the blind man trying to cross the road and should have just stopped for him to cross even though he was two lanes away from me. By not stopping and expecting, hoping that the other drivers behind me would do the right thing, I actually perpetuated a chain of events where someone could have been hurt. I could have done the right thing, but I didn't. I could have been the change that I want to see in the world. I could have.

It got me to thinking just how much of a change I want to see in the world and how much of a part I want to play in that change. It also got me to wondering if Malaysians really are that caring a lot that the tourists and media say we are or if we're just kidding ourselves.