A traffic jam makes everyone equally late and somehow everyone still honks like it’s personal.

Shared bad luck rarely feels shared. Everyone in the queue is delayed by exactly the same amount, nobody caused it, and it still arrives as a personal insult, because frustration goes looking for someone to aim at and a car in front will do. The honking changes nothing and it is not really about the traffic. It is about having somewhere to put the feeling.

Next time you are stuck, try noticing that every person around you is having the identical day. It takes the sting out surprisingly fast. Then spend the delay on something you would not have chosen, a call, a podcast, ten minutes of nothing.