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Sometimes when I’m driving down the road, I can’t help thinking how close I might be to catastrophe. All it would take would be for that panel truck driver to jerk his hand on the steering wheel and drive into my lane before I had a chance to react. I’ve been driving for forty years and that’s never happened, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t. I trust that it won’t, but how can I be sure? It’s a thin line, you know.
And then I think about the thin line we traverse every day in our personal relationships. This isn’t a dotted white line on pavement, but the virtual line between helping and hurting each other, and it’s a line that’s a lot trickier to stay on the right side of. Sometimes we don’t even know we’ve crossed it after the harm is already done. The wrong word at the wrong time can send a message that can’t be taken back.
People are suffering in silence because of something someone else said or did. Maybe you wouldn’t hurt someone on purpose, but a thoughtless word or a selfish act might do the job anyway. I guess I’m just saying that I wish people would think before they speak — think about how the other person might feel, or about what their words might mean to them.
It’s not that hard to do. It just takes a little empathy, a little compassion. If you’re too heartless (or too lazy) to take the time to make sure you’re not doing unnecessary harm to someone you don’t want to cause pain to, then you’re not like that panel truck driver who could drive into my lane but doesn’t. Instead you’re like a driver who’s going down a crowded road while sucking down jell-o shots. (Or, you know, doing something else obliviously self-gratifying.) | 
