Driving often frustrates me. Experience has taught me to hesitate when I am the first car and a traffic light turns green, because I have seen far too many vehicles run red lights. I want to make sure they stop.

Yet, most times the driver behind me will blast the horn immediately. Impatient, he or she cannot give me even a second to make sure the coast is clear.

Why are people so rude? Maybe it’s my imagination, but impoliteness and lack of consideration seem to be rampant these days. I wonder why.

According to dictionary definitions, consideration is “a matter weighed or taken into account when formulating an opinion or plan” and “thoughtful and sympathetic regard” for others.

Do we think carefully before we act? Often we do not.

Yet, Charles Darwin argued that our instinct to be considerate is stronger than our instinct to be self-serving.

Marian Wright Edelman, American activist for civil rights and children’s rights, encourages that natural instinct. “Being considerate of others will take your children further in life than any college degree,” she asserted in a speech.

Even in relationships with family members and friends, some folks fail to think about how their actions will impact others.

Consideration is respect for the needs and feelings of others. In a number of families, that means banning cellphones from the table while dining, both at home and in restaurants. Meal time is an opportunity to focus on those who are present with us to make them feel seen and heard, without interruption. We need to give them full attention.

Even the Bible, in a number of passages, weighs in on the subject of consideration. For example, in Philippians 2:4 we are reminded, “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”

I have thought of that scripture when I am on a commercial flight and have witnessed arguments erupting over reclining seats. Personally I don’t think any seats on planes or buses should be capable of reclining. But since they do, I have to make the best of the situation when I travel.

Although I never recline my seat, I have been the victim of travelers who do, usually without turning around and asking first. I don’t scream at them or throw drinks or disrupt the flight. I just deal with it, telling myself the flight will not last forever, even though it may feel that way.

How we choose to cope with life’s annoyances is what separates adults from tantrum-throwing children. People who create a spectacle when they don’t get their way look foolish.

Even worse, anger can move us one step closer to the grave. Like smoking and high cholesterol, anger increases the risk of developing heart disease.

It’s time to tell ourselves to act nice, even if sinister thoughts are bubbling up inside. After all, not everything is about us, certainly not perceived slights on the road or in grocery store lines or movie theaters.

We need not take the world’s rude incidents personally. Nor should we perpetrate them.

Considering the feelings of others first does not mean we think less of ourselves; it is just thinking of ourselves less, to paraphrase a famous quote by British author C.S. Lewis.

The next time something or someone irritates us, if we pause for a moment before speaking or reacting we might be better equipped to show some consideration.

Let a more polite world begin with us. And that, according to Eeyore, the donkey in A.A. Milne’s book, “Winnie-the-Pooh,” will make all the difference.