20 Jun 2014 If Life is a Highway . . .
The analogy of life as a highway poses some interesting questions. Some are obvious, others less so, but all are interesting.
As kids we continually asked our Dads, ‘are we there yet?’ But with little sense of time or surroundings, Dad’s answer always fell short of providing us with any helpful information.
As adults, life on our highways is shaped by our personalities, who we are, and how we conduct ourselves on the road. Some of us wonder what’s around the next curve, with new landscapes and roadside attractions. Others worry continually over the traffic ahead and the challenges it poses for schedules. Some wonder if a faster way to get there exists, or a more scenic or more leisurely way, or if there is where we want to go at all?
Then there are the more subtle questions we ask as we travel along. Are we prone to change our course when we see exit signs to more exciting and exotic places? Do we recognize opportunities along our highway or pass them by hardly noticing? For instance, the kitchen table outside that roadside antique store we just passed looked exactly like the one we’ve been looking for. Should we go back? Was that gas station in the rear view mirror maybe the last one available for a very long time? Do we have enough gas to make it to the next one? Where is the next one? Would a map be helpful or would we rather be adventurous – surprised by our highway’s unfolding mystery? Do we focus on mile markers to our destination or do we ignore them altogether enjoying the sites, sounds, tastes, smells, and stories along the journey?
As we consider our miles traveled and realize there are more behind than ahead, we begin to ask ourselves some more profound questions. Questions that require us to use the rear view mirror rather than looking ahead.
We might wonder when our earthly road comes to its certain dead end, what will our journey have been about? We might well remember the times we have pulled off our busy highways to transact with, to relate to, to listen to, to encourage, and to walk alongside those on our way. But regrettably we will also recount the times we have barreled along our highways leaving nothing but dust in our wake.
If life is a highway, what better way to travel it than to make our destination and our journey one in the same?
