Why I vowed to never make fun of someone singing in their car

In my recent interview with the Know Nothing Podcast we discussed what it means to have zest. Here is a follow up to that conversation.

Zest is about approaching your lived experience with energy and engagement. Regardless of circumstances, those who have zest are able to see life as an adventure. In the VIA Strengths Survey zest is categorized as a subset of courage. Perhaps because it takes courage to take the risk of actually enjoying life. Lowering expectations and coasting is far less vulnerable than daring to live a life full of meaning and excitement. Zest is linked directly with psychological and physiological well-being.

Zest = life engagement

I think a perfect example of seeing someone lost in their zestiness is when you pull up to a red light and in the car next to you is someone belting out their favourite tune. Your inner jerk will leap at the opportunity to rip into this poor soul. There are fewer easier targets than these.

But I have made a vow to never make fun of someone who is so lost in the zest of life that they either don't notice me or don't care. In fact, I want to applaud car-singers worldwide.

What does one human being have possibly to gain by insulting another who is enjoying life. If it's jealousy than the joke is on you. Here you have come across someone who has a reason to sing while you are stuck in the stale, banal day-to-day. So it seems the only way to gain some sense of gratification in this equation is to try and put yourself above this person in the artificial social ladder. In essence you resort to your inner teenager and tap into the part of you that is disgusted by anything that doesn't fit the desirable mold. No wonder  you're not singing.

Cheers to those who dance in their living rooms, sing in their cars, and smile to strangers on the street. You make my day and I think you're courageous.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the [vehicle], whose face is marred by [trying to hit the highest note] and [awkward embarrassment]; who strives valiantly; who [messes up the words continually but keeps singing], who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

                                                           - Theodore Roosevelt (altered slightly to fit our theme here today)