When I’m in the yard and a car slows down in front of my
house, I look up to see who it is, assuming that they must be stopping to greet
me. Since I moved to my new home on Arnold Drive, this happens all the time. In
fact, every single car that goes by slows down in front of my house. And I
always look up, wondering who it is. Even if it’s not a familiar face I see in
the car, I wave. Usually, they wave back. Are people in my new neighborhood
that much friendlier than they have been any other place I’ve lived? No. But
this is the first place I’ve lived where there is a speed bump in the street directly
in front of my house.
Speed bumps. Don’t you just love ‘em? All you want to do is get
from point A to point B, and they throw these little obstacles in your path for
no other reason than to slow you down. They’re so damn annoying. But, of
course, there is a reason for them, because there is a reason why you need to
slow down. This is a place where people are walking, and running, and playing. And
for the safety of the people (and animals) on the street, those who are driving their
cars need to be inconvenienced. Really, it’s a small price to pay when you look
at it that way.
The street I live on, Arnold Drive, could easily become a
cut-through street. You enter it on the south from Central Avenue, which is one
of the main arteries in Charlotte, and the entrance to the east is from another
busy street, Eastway Drive. But Arnold is not an easy way to cut through, by
design. The road snakes around more than any street I’ve seen outside the
mountains. And it is filled with speed bumps.
It really is a lovely little
road, and I enjoy the drive -- when I’m not in a hurry. But when I just want to
get from one place to another as quickly as possible, I avoid it. I have
several short cuts I can take to get home, where I miss the curves and most of
the speed bumps, and I'm in my driveway before I know it, with no
recollection of how I got there. Yet I have to admit that when I travel the
long way down the street, and slow down for the countless speed bumps, making
my way to the place where I live, I always remember my journey.
Maybe there is something to be said for the value of speed
bumps to those of us who always seem to be in a hurry. Maybe those little
annoyances in our path are there to remind us to ease up and pay attention to
what’s happening around us.
Yeah, and maybe those speed bumps are a metaphor for other annoyances as well.
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