Again after reading another post by @Smilepie about getting flipped off while driving reminded me of three stories about the finger. At work there is a lady who came from the Philippines. She said when she first arrived here, her and her new American husband were driving when someone gave them the finger. She said she smiled and waved at them because she didn’t know what it meant. She just thought they were waving in a funny way. Her husband explained what the funny wave meant. Another woman at work told me she flipped off a trucker. Bad idea. The trucker rode her bumper for miles scaring the crap out of her. All she saw in her rearview mirror was a giant truck grill. She said she never again gave anyone the bird while driving. One place I worked there was a man who came from Vietnam. When he saw someone flipping the finger he asked what it meant. The guy told him it meant, “Hi.” So he was going around saying, “Hi” to everyone. Someone finally asked him if he knew what that gesture meant. I’m sure it was quite embarrassing once he found out what it really meant. So, what can the finger do? It can come back and bite you like it did the woman who gave it to the trucker. Or to others it could be just a funny wave or a way to say, “Hi.” I know most of the time it is given in anger but it’s not always received that way. When I get the finger, it doesn’t upset me. I just figure someone needs to vent their anger by exercising their finger. I will admit there has been times when I felt like letting someone know how angered their foolish driving made me, but I didn’t. I kept my bird in its cage.