Mixed Messages

On my way up the 101 freeway, here in my little homey town of Camarillo, California, I was undeservedly flipped off by a very young-looking male driver at the helm of an older station wagon.

The gesture caught me off guard, for moments before I was admiring this car's two bumper stickers: one being a blue rectangle displaying (in artfully rendered characters) the word "Coexist," the other being a partially torn one touting the car owner's support for presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Was he driving his parents' car? He was young, maybe 17, it was hard to tell seeing as he was in my field of vision for a mere 10 seconds. And what did I even do to deserve the offensive gesture he had just delivered to me?

Just prior to the finger raising, I was thinking to myself briefly, "What a kind- hearted, empathetic driver this must be; and, "Right on, dude."

What the hell did I do unbeknownst to myself? I was left thinking, "Is this kid a jerk, or am I that out of it to have done something "to" him while driving that would justify his gesture to me? It was all just very strange.