(Thanks to Kim at Jane Cares for your latest blog article, "Love a Lemon." It got me thinking - and writing - and I am WAY overdue for a good write.)
Most of the time, we are always wanting smooth roads. This is why we take the freeway. I know people - good people, mind you! - who will drive 2 extra miles to get to the freeway entrance in order to avoid running into stoplights over a 5-mile distance.
The desire for the smoothest road - one without stoplights, turns, bumps, or potholes - is the desire to reach a destination, and nothing else. When the destination is the most important thing (like getting to work quickly), then a freeway is important to have around.
In life, the smooth road is the one that is free of disease, breakups, loss, or discomfort. Some people feel they can plan around these things to make for a smoother road. Some people make "smoothing the road" their life's work, with honorable destinations of retirement or owning the house or getting married or having kids or working from the corner office. Some people avoid anything that would create a new turn in their smooth road
And somehow, unexpected things still turn up in our smooth roads.
So, maybe getting the smoothest road isn't really the point.
The freeway isn't the only road to one's destination. There have always been sidestreets. When we get used to taking the freeway everywhere, we forget that sidestreets even exist. We forget that there is life under the concrete ramps and overpasses. The sidestreets have potholes and stoplights; we'll have to stop and it will take more time than taking the freeway. But at least the sidestreets have people and shops and things to look at besides the smoothness of the asphalt.
If you've been on the freeway so long that you've lost the "drive" for your destination, it could be time to take the off-ramp and roam the sidestreets for a turn or two until your original reason comes back to you.
We can think of the economic climate of the previous 15 years as having been a wild ride on the freeway. We're all being forced off the freeway to take the sidestreets for a little while. While you're on the slower roads, use that extra time to take notice and enjoy what's around you. I know I have been surprised encountering all the things I haven't seen, just by taking a different route. "How long has this been around?" I'll ask.
The answer is usually, "Long before the freeway came up."
For a real treat, absorb the surroundings on a country road. Bring a sandwich and you have a cheap field trip!
Posts
