I see it all the time, that strange illness where people talk to themselves in cars. But saying they are talking to themselves is a bit of an understatement, it is with a passion and animation that would make a television chief proud. Although you can find it anywhere and at any time of the year, as Christmas approaches the affliction seems to take on a whole new intensity.

Take my daughter for instance. We would be driving to the shopping centre or somewhere just as innocuous, in no real hurry to get there, or at least for no reason I can think of, when she starts the usual tirade against the other cars on the road. Well, not so much the cars but what she calls the ‘semi-intelligent life forms behind the wheel’.

"Idiot, don't you have a signal light", to the driver of the car that cut in front of us.

"What is your problem, the traffic lights have turned green, what are you waiting for, a written invitation?"

From what I could tell by lip reading, this was typical of the comments that poured forth from many of the drivers on our road but did it ever occur to any of them, that no one can hear them?

When I made this comment to my daughter after a particularly excited utterance, she said it did not matter that they were unable to hear her, she felt better for saying it, it’s therapeutic. Besides it was probably better that they couldn’t hear, she was able to safely let off steam and get rid of the frustration without getting her head caved in.

"Are you sure you’re letting off steam?" I asked her, "or are you building it up. Besides, they can still see you. Heaven knows what they think your saying."

Thankfully, she is not that bad and generally keeps her comments to herself but I have seen drivers yelling at other cars, sometimes making rude gestures and often banging on the steering wheel, clearly in a rage. I am horrified at some of the reports we see in the media, where drivers are bashed, the rage displayed is so extreme, especially when you learn about the relatively minor slight that started the altercation.

Everyone seems to think they are an expert on the rules and that they themselves never break them, at least not that they would admit.

What has happened to us, why do people act this way to-day? We have no patience; we are always in a rush, are discourteous and have forgotten how to behave towards each other.

I am in my seventies and remember when most people relied on public transport. Owning a car was a luxury, only a few families owned one and only one. People took longer to get from A to B, they seemed to accept this as a fact of life and saw the journey as an experience in itself, to be enjoyed.

Most have heard but not experienced the simple pleasure of the whole family climbing into the car on a Sunday, to go nowhere in particular, just to enjoy the drive. Usually this was done at a leisurely pace, the scenery that we passed more important than the destination, which was invariably back home.

That was the Sunday drive and that is what I call ‘therapeutic.’

People today seem in a hurry to get somewhere, anywhere, their lives filled with stress and tension. Take a leaf out of the book of the past, become a Sunday driver, slow down, enjoy the scenery and live.

Julie Reed

Watsonia, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia