I'm guaranteed to be wrong

 

There is a convention; a courtesy among truck drivers.  When one truck is passing another, the truck that is being passed blinks his headlights when the passing truck is clear and can move back into the right lane.  In recognition of that courtesy, the passing truck blinks his running lights as a thank you.  It’s a pleasant convention; and we find ourselves participating in it when we’re driving the freeway in our motorhome.  We are, after all, about the size of a truck, and our motorhome is equipped with buttons on the steering wheel to facilitate the conversation.

 

Trucks blink us over.  We blink trucks over.  Most trucks include us in the ritual, but not all.  That’s where the question comes in.  When we’re passing, I can’t always tell which trucks blink us and which don’t.  If I’m not looking in the right side mirror to change lanes at the moment the trucker blinks us, I miss the blink.  If they blink me over, I should blink them thank you.  If they don’t blink me over, I don’t need to say thank you.  But if they blinked me over and I just didn’t see, and I don’t blink them back, I’ll be rude.

 

Whatever I choose, I’m guaranteed to be wrong some of the time, so I choose to blink thank you to every truck I pass.  That way, when I am wrong, at least I’ve erred on the side of civility.