This intersection is souped up; it has a minimum of one lane designated for left turns in every direction. I planned on going straight through the intersection and then turning left into the gas station on the corner. However, it became apparent the car across the street was in the lane I was headed toward. It was stopped at the light but it was facing my direction and it was in the wrong lane, my lane.
It's funny how quick you can actually assess a situation when need be. Time seemed to slow down, way down, as I weighed all my options. My biggest fear was the other driver was intoxicated and my trying to predict their next move seemed risky. I decided I would turn left and enter the gas station from a different direction. I waited in the left turn lane for my light to turn green. The car across the street waited in the wrong lane for its light to turn green. I just wasn't sure which direction the car intended on going.
My light switched and I eased out, waiting to see what the other car was going to do. The car didn't move and I punched it and cleared the intersection with no incident. I pulled into the gas station and was now fairly close to the mystery vehicle. It was dark but I could make out the driver was a young, at least younger than me, woman. She just sat and stared at the light. I filled up my tank with gas, an event that took several minutes. The woman was still waiting at the light when I was tightening the cap on my tank and preparing to leave the station.
I now began to wonder what I was going to do. The easiest and way more convenient way to head home was to turn left at the intersection the woman was waiting in. It all seemed pretty harmless, as far as her being intoxicated, at this point. I had decided she was simply confused and was in the wrong lane. My only real apprehension was pulling up to her, in the correct turn lane, and then having another vehicle enter the intersection and want to get through in our direction. I hadn't made up my mind if I was just going to drive up next to her, mostly for entertainment purposes at this point, or play it safe and exit the other direction and drive a block out of the way simply to play it safe. As I pondered my new options I noticed the mystery vehicle was going in reverse. The woman backed up a few feet and then switched over two lanes to turn right at the light. I pulled out, the way I originally intended, and stopped at the light that had the baffled the woman. When my left turn light turned green I pulled out and noticed the mystery vehicle heading to the intersection after she had gone down the extra block and made the first available U-turn.
It seems pretty safe to assume the lady simply got confused and didn't realize she was in the wrong lane, thus never triggering the signal. However, that's not her reality at all. In her mind that light doesn't work. She's sure of it. She has proof of it. She has firsthand knowledge of it. If she's anything like most of us she'll probably tell others about the broken left turn light at that intersection. And if her friends are like most of our friends then they'll probably razz her for not running the light when it was discovered it was malfunctioning. She and I shared a close proximity in time/space on that morning and our experience and understanding of that moment are certainly not the same. Our realities, as it pertains to that specific incident, are different.
For that woman the "truth" about reality is entirely different than my "truth" about reality. For as long as we both live and for as long as we recollect that moment, that reality will remain two different "truths" to each of us (and now the people we've shared this story with). Our senses fool us all of the time, yet we still value our own personal experiences more than any other. Seeing is believing. There is no deeper message; it was mostly just a story with a simple observation.
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