This morning, I posted an entry with some pretty heavy life-and-death stuff on how relative right and wrong is, and how what is right for some may be wrong for the rest, and vice versa. Usually, once I finish something, it will leave me alone. But no this time. As I walked down to the park near my house, I was struck by yet another example of the conflict of interests between the individual and the society at large. What I saw was a car parked in a space reserved for invalids.
This space for invalids was created about two years ago, but merging two existing parking spaces into one and placing a sign. I suspect that the original reason for creating the parking space was to either make it easier for invalids to access the park (in which the prohibition should coincide with the opening hours of the park), or the hotel nearby (which is open 24 hours a day), or both. Whatever the intention, there are often car. But judging from the number of cars without invalid stickers that park there, it is obvious that many people interpret it to mean that it is prohibited to park there during working hours.
The car I saw this morning (Sunday) was presumably yet another example of this. Being a "good" citizen who normally respects traffic rules and regulations, I was very tempted (as I often am) to check with the parking police, to see whether or not it is acceptable to park there, knowing full well that that might mean that the car parked there now might be towed off. But I won't. Not because I have any sympathy for the owner - I can even derive a certain amount of glee from seeing a poorly maintained car with French license plates be carted off to the impound - but because (and here comes the ethical dilemma) every car parked there, legally or otherwise, means better chances for me of finding a space. The parking situation is not exactly dire in our neighbourhood, but every space counts.
Now I expect some of you will feel some righteous indignation: have I no sympathy or respect for invalids?!? Of course I do. But in the more than two years since the creation of the special parking space, I have not once seen an invalid park there. Nor have I ever seen an illegally parked car being hauled off, which suggests to me that it does not happen very often. So, rather than petitioning city hall (possibly in vain) for the removal of a parking space which is probably hardly ever used by invalids, I allow the situation to continue.
One last note: it is funny to see how emotional people (myself included) can get about traffic regulations. In fact, I suspect that people can actually get more emotional about small, "trivial" issues than about important ones, because they feel that the small ones should not be an issue in the first place. So in fact, they not only get upset about the issue, they also get upset about getting upset.
Post scriptum (almost a week later now): you know how it never rains when you remember to take an umbrella, or how the superslow supermarket cash-out line suddenly starts moving quite briskly the moment you change to another line? Well, this morning, there was an invalid parked in the invalid space. All I needed do was complain and - as Deepak Chopra puts it - the universe will take care of it.
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