Ditching

Today in Sal's class....well actually I can't say for sure. While everyone else was watching part of a movie (aka throwing a party...?) I was waiting on the side of the road for AAA to come pull my car out of a snow bank. After my car skidded of the road, my friend and I frantically began digging out the tires, putting wood under the wheels to try and get some traction, and did our best to get my car back on the road. Then, with half of the car back on the street, we learned it's really hard to get a front wheel drive car up onto the road from in a ditch. To say the least I was a bit frustrated.
When I took a moment to forget about how cold my hands were, I found myself thinking about sociology. All week we've been discussing sociological mindfulness and the sociological mind in class. Both of these concepts rely on understanding yourself as a member of a society. A sociological mind can understand the impact of a community on the individual, whereas sociological mindfulness is the action of consciously understanding the social implications of your actions. This morning, my car was stuck halfway in a ditch and halfway into the middle of a small neighborhood road...it was noticeable. For this very reason, I noticed a lot of people staring at my friends and me trying to back my car out of the snow bank. I wondered how these people all saw me; these strangers who I would never meet would have this idea of me for the rest of their lives. Was I, 'that idiot who drove into the snow', or, 'that poor kid who was going to be late to school.' At the same time, what did I think of all of them? "Ya lady, my car's in the snow...you can stop staring now; how can you just drive by without even looking if I'm okay?" It was very interesting to wonder why some people stopped to help and others drove right by.
Sociological mindfulness allowed me to have another interesting idea. After the tow truck arrived, my little incident was blocking the entire road. This wasn't that big of a problem, until a snow plow and a local resident became stuck behind the truck. Suddenly my problems were directly impacting the lives of these strangers. I was making them late for work. I was the reason the guy in the snow plow couldn't do his job. It's amazing how much complete strangers affect each other.