"Yesterday I was driving through the streets of Jerusalem with my private car," one of the readers of Haopenah tells us. "The roads were congested, and the drivers were impatient. I drove leisurely, and I left earlier because I knew that during those hours the traffic could be quite slow...
"Suddenly, without any prior preparation, the car came to a stop in the middle of the road, in a traffic circle. I tried to put the gear lever into parking position and restart the car, but it just didn’t respond.
"Within a few minutes, traffic jams were already raging on all sides of the square. I want to roll the car over to the side of the road, but a huge truck is standing behind me, and behind it are many other cars. I got out of the car and tried to direct the traffic. If everyone reversed a bit, I told them, I could roll the car backwards, down the road, and park it on the side of the road. But the long convoy did not move.
"Nervous drivers were already gathering around me, others were sitting in cars and honking impatiently, and then there was the roar of the engine of a motorcycle on which a traffic policeman was riding. " The policeman actually found an excellent idea. Instead of starting to move dozens of cars backwards to make room and rolling the car backwards, he suggested that we push it slightly forward up the road, while the rest of the cars were standing still, and then roll the car back down and direct it to the side of the road.
It worked. After three minutes, the road was clear, and traffic resumed. "I went up to the policeman and thanked him warmly," "I complimented him on the brilliance of his solution, and for the fact that he 'saved the day'. " I hadn't thought before how important this compliment would be to a policeman, but after I complimented him, I saw that his face just lit up. He enjoyed the warm things I said to him so much, and drove away with his mood 'in the clouds'.
"I thought about it for a while, and I understood why he enjoyed it so much. After all, a traffic policeman by virtue of his job fulfills an unpleasant role. Usually, the people he meets are angry with him because of the reports he has to give them. My kind words were just like cold water on a tired soul, and I'm sure that in the hours that followed, he was more merciful to people caught by him while committing traffic violations. Thus, with one minute of praise and compliments, I made him happy, and also reduced the mental anguish caused to other drivers."
