Sidewalk Supremacy

Last week my family and I went to Southern California for a vacation. Of course, it included a day at Disneyland and several walks at the beach. As you know, I am a noticer of wierd things. One of the things I notice is sidewalk etiquette. And when it comes to sidewalk etiquette, there is a dearth of it. Whether I am walking at Lake Hefner here in OKC, on the rim of the Grand Canyon, or on the boardwalk at Laguna Beach, it seems that every group that is walking toward me has already decided that I am in their way and therefore I must yield the sidewalk to them. Groups of three or four feel perfectly empowered to walk abreast, sauntering without any realization that anyone else might possibly need some of the sidewalk for their own journey.
I am reminded of a playground game that many of the boys would play at recess. They would assemble 10 or 12 boys, lock arms and march the length of the playground saying, "We won't stop for a bottle of pop!" over and over as they mowed down smaller kids like me, or forced us to run to the end of the relentlessly moving barricade to get around them. All those feelings of powerlessness and resentment come flooding back every time Carole and I find it necessary to go single file or even step off the sidewalk so that the meandering sidewalk bullies are allowed to continue unhindered down the sidewalk they seemingly own.
I have wondered what it would be like to pretend that I am oblivious of the others and play a slow motion game of sidewalk "chicken". Would one of us suddenly lose our nerve and jump off the path, or would we come to a halt, facing one another, waiting for the other one to yield?
I try to spiritualize this mini-drama by remembering the scriptural admonition to "esteem others more highly than yourself", but I still get frustrated that others aren't as spiritual as I. Don't they want blessings in their lives? No, they are just settling for sidewalk supremacy.
I think about monumental things, don't I?