For the last week or two the neighbours on one side have been parking slightly into my driveway, so that they can try to squeeze two cars into theirs. At first this irked me a little, but I didn’t dwell on it. Tonight I pulled in and then straightened up ’til I was uncomfortably close to them [for them; their driver’s side against my passengers’].
The thought crossed my mind “ha, serves them right”. Then I paused and thought, “wait, why do I care?”. I’m going to park unnecessarily close to them for what, the principle of the thing? Why?
I realised that it’s not a worthwhile principle. Regardless of whether I choose to view it as charitable or not, there’s just no reason why I can’t park over slightly more.
I’m pretty happy with myself. Too often I get fixated on the principles underlying petty issues, and don’t apply a sufficient level of pragmatism.
