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Life Is Highway: Observations from a Traffic Encounter
On the weekends, I trek to the gym, a trip that is about a 15-minute commute in two-lane traffic. I encounter about a dozen traffic lights during the drive. Last weekend, as I was traveling along, a lady in a black Pathfinder raced up behind me and then swerved around me. I didn’t think I was going slowly, but I checked myself just to be sure. Nope. I was going with the flow of traffic. I watched as she cut in front of the car that was in front of mine and then switched back into the other lane. She continued weaving between lanes and around cars. When I arrived at the final light before the gym, I saw she was directly in front of me. I thought to myself, “She went through all of that to end up no farther than where she started?”
It occurred to me that the woman’s actions and the final result could be a metaphor for life. We can make a conscious decision to go with the flow as we take the route to our destination, or we can try to jump ahead, putting ourselves and others in jeopardy, in hopes that maybe we will arrive faster. In the case of the driver on my way to the gym, trying to get ahead was a waste of her energy. Moreover, it was reckless; it’s amazing that she didn’t cause an accident.
