The New Ten Commandments

To my utter and complete surprise, I found that a very prominent organization has released a new set of driving rules. To my even greater surprise, that organization was the Vatican. My first reaction was to ask myself, out loud, "Doesn't the Vatican have anything better to do?", and then I proceeded to answer myself, "They should!"

(I know that most don't deem this a healthy practice, but on occasion I do talk to myself, and even worse, I answer myself sometimes.)

After a few minutes I decided that maybe the Vatican making up a set of commandments to govern driving wasn't such a bad idea. Catholicism after all was, and may still be, the largest religion in this country. If the Vatican reaches all of it's parishioners, and half of them follow the new commandments, maybe my drive to and from work will become less nerve-racking. Wishful thinking you say? Probably, but it sure would be nice.

So for those of you who are now curious about the new commandments, here they are, along with my interpretaition.

1. You shall not kill.
DUH!

2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.
I think this one means be nice to those you share the road with, and don't do harm to others.

3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.
Pay attention, more being nice, and obey the rules of the road.

4. Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.
Offer aid to those stranded, and don't honk at the car in front of you that was just in a wreck.

5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
Quit with the road rage already, and no sex in the car.

6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.
When you are too young or too old to drive, don't. If you know someone who fits in the above to categories, hide the keys well.

7. Support the families of accident victims.
Be there in any way possible for anyone involved in hardship related to an accident, and their family.

8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
Get over it! Move on! Forgive and Forget!

9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
Drive defensively! (You are always the most vulnerable)

10. Feel responsible toward others.
Again! Be nice (do you see a recurring theme here)! The other person is someone's family after all.

Ok, so the Vatican probably has more important things to do, but then again, how many people does driving affect? What I found interesting is that people are so dim-witted when driving that the Vatican felt the need to make a set of rules and have them published. Probably in hopes that the portion of the world that felt the need to ignore the currently posted rules of the road would, maybe, just maybe, listen to the Vatican.

I did find an article about it when I got home from work, and you can read it here.