Words from The Crone

We have returned to our little corner of ITMON (In the Middle of Nowhere) after a 3-day sojourn to Washington, DC to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.  It was only after we crossed the District line into Maryland that I realized how tense I had been for those three days.  A sense of calm and rest descended upon my tied-in-knots body and I was at peace for the first time since we entered the District.

 Generally stress builds up through relationships or by situations in which human beings are involved.  An argument with your spouse or child.  A deadline set by your boss.  Some cranky person who doesn’t see things your way.  Pushing yourself to achieve some unheard of perfection.  Stress.  Lots of stress.

 But, the stress I felt in DC was not deliberately caused by human beings.  Unless, of course, you count the fact that Henry Ford invented the assembly line and a car for every family.  You see, it was the traffic that drove me (no pun intended) up the wall – or over the asphalt.  If there was two feet of space between any two cars in the District it was because there had been a mistake made or an accident.  Bumper to bumper traffic, horns honking, no parking spaces, one way streets, two way streets with green arrows, red arrows, no arrows.  Cars cutting in front of you.  Cars coming out of nowhere.  At one intersection a police car came screaming in from out of nowhere and turned into the divided highway against traffic and left a host of amazed and puzzled drivers simply shaking heads.  It was, to be perfectly honest, a nightmare.

I loved the museums, I loved the fabulous meals, I loved the trip down memory lane to long forgotten places.  I loved the perfect parking place provided by my parking spirit.  I loved walking my seminary campus and soaking in the peace and spirituality of the “Holy Hill.”  I loved celebrating my daughter’s birthday with her.  I hated the cars and the traffic and the congestion and the pollution they made.  I even hated the thought that my car was contributing to this mess.  I wish we had a better way to get around cleanly and safely.  Hello, God, got any suggestions? 

 God:  Segways?

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 24th, 2009 at 9:40 PM and is filed under Life in General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.