Tailgating Make You Feel Better?

When I lived in Houston, being tailgated on the freeways was not unusual. Now I live out in the sticks and I was surprised when someone tailgated me this week. As I viewed them in my rear view mirror, I could see he was upset, wanted me to speed up but I was doing the speed limit and our little road has been known to have officers catching speeders. At my age, it's just easier to go the speed limit. I doubt I could talk my way out of a ticket--if that's possible.
As I watched the road ahead of me and occasionally looked back to my tailgater, his facial expression kept getting worse and worse. I wonder how many people realize how many nonverbal messages they send out? Well, his concerned me as he was right on my tail with an angry look and a scowl on his face so I began to slow down to think about pulling into a gas station and letting him move ahead. What was interesting was what happened next. Just as I spotted the gas station ahead, a car pulled right out in front of me from a strip mall center and I had to slam on my breaks. Thank goodness that the tailgater was paying attention because he didn't hit me but I could hear his tires screeching behind me.
As the other car peeled out in front of us, I slowly accelerated and noticed that this time, the man in back of me gave me plenty of room and the tailgating had stopped. I maintained the speed limit and kept on to my destination. The man stayed at a safe distance from my car and I felt much better about the trip. Because of his distance, I couldn't see his facial expressions anymore so I don't know if he was still mad. Perhaps he was just grateful that he hadn't plowed into my car because of his tailgating. Thank goodness he didn't need to learn that lesson with me.
Now, you would think that the story would end there but it doesn't. A few days later, I was late to a meeting about 45 minutes from my house and I got behind someone who was going slower than the speed limit and guess what I was doing? You're right--tailgating. I could feel myself getting irritated and then the memory of that man tailgating me and how uncomfortable I felt came flooding back to me. I backed off and was grateful for the other encounter to remind me of my safety as well as the safety of the other person. I made it to my meeting on time and I hope the other driver got to his/her destination safely as well. My emotions told me that I was angry over the slow driver. A look in the mirror told me that my body was expressing that anger through my facial expressions and through the white knuckle grip I had on the steering wheel. I'm glad I'm listening to and watching my nonverbal messages from me to me. They are quite revealing.