Cars and Laughter

So... I had a few random thoughts yesterday. Sadly, I am only just now getting around to writing about them. The first were a few things having to do with traffic laws here in China. I already knew, for instance, that I cannot look outside the front window of a taxi that I am in because my nervous system does not handle it very well. They go where they want regardless of who or what is already there. It can be fun at times, but other times, it scares me to death. That could have something to do with having no stop signs at intersections other than on main streets. I have yet to see many stop signs at all actually... just a few stoplights on main streets. You simply get to the end of the street and pull out onto the next one, barely glancing behind you. If you waited for people to let you out, you would be waiting all day. However, somehow this idea works here for the most part. That brings me to my second thought. Traffic wrecks. I've only seen a couple in the time I've spent here, and I've been in a minor one (the taxi we were in hit another taxi last year). The others that I saw, as well as the one we were in, had no police called out. The drivers simply get out and decide whose fault it is, and pay the amount they figure for damages right then and there. Obviously, I've never seen more than fender-benders. I'm not sure what would happen with a really bad wreck. However, no one stops for wrecks. They simply go around. My sister informed me that this is actually safer because if others tried to stop, people would just end up in more wrecks.

The third thought that I want to focus on from yesterday is a little more serious and a little more intense. My sister is fostering two children. We went to a friend's house yesterday and they are fostering two children as well. Their little boy, Nathan, was really having a rough time at one point and was crying near hysterics. Abigail, my niece, was sitting there listening and suddenly started tearing up and looking all concerned. She would look from him, to my sister, and back at him. Then, her lip started quivering and she looked hard at my sister for all she was worth. It was all you could do but hear her say “Fix it!!” even though she was saying nothing at all. It broke my heart. Her heart was broken for her friend. She quite literally felt his pain. She didn't have to know why he was crying, she wasn't busy being nosy, she just wanted it fixed for him. If children are born with that high of a level of empathy for others, where does it go when we reach adulthood? Our Father says that we should be sad when others are sad, and happy for them when they are happy. Why can we not share in others' joy without being envious, and why must we know why someone is crying before we comfort them and encourage them? Just something for us all to think about today (myself included).