Ah, metro areas.

Friday, November 11^th, 2011

What is it about singing? There is a kind of magic with just belting out the tunes in your own vehicle. There is a release, and the songs somehow affect you more than they would if you didn't sing along. When was the last time you were driving, and felt compelled to sing, for the sheer joy of it? That is what I did for a bit of the day today, and I let that color my whole experience. Today's song of note was “Time,” by Pink Floyd. For me it is hard not to be choked up by this, or at least moved. I was going to write the lyrics, but there would be no justice without the music honestly. Essentially, it is about how you spend your time, and how precious it really is. Given that this job is governed by varying clocks, it hits home on so many levels (but the job level is nowhere near as profound as the song is for me personally).

Driving through Seattle rush hour traffic today gave me cause to think. Of course I wasn't going anywhere in a hurry, what with 22 tons of copy paper slowing me down and all. That and the copious amounts of traffic. Still, for all of that traffic, there are always gaps between the clusters of vehicles. I, personally, try to maintain a 4 second minimum cushion between me and the driver ahead of me (hooray for Smith system driving! seriously... everyone should look into this if for no better reason than self preservation). Invariably, there will be at least one, maybe two, and sometimes three cars that will take advantage of this safety buffer to get someplace ahead. This is all part of the job though. While that guy may not realize that he is putting his life and my career in jeopardy, my role as a professional driver is to be courteous and simply deal with his ignorance.

I used to get all sorts of angry about stuff like that. Back when I started, I was so angry all the time. My hair started to retire early because of it. I feel that I've come some ways since then. What amazes me is that other drivers still rush around like they really need to be somewhere. From my limited perspective, how can I know what is going on in their lives? Maybe they do think that they need to be somewhere so important that they will risk life and limb to get there. Maybe the risk is not so high, but everything carries some risk.

Given that all activities carry a risk, we as a society have grown accustomed to what may appear to be an acceptable amount of losses for any given action. Considering that today is Veteran's Day and Armistice Day (end of WWI) I was looking through the lens of war and casualties. I'm putting myself out on a limb here so bear with me. As we have progressed through the last century, we've had all sorts of catastrophic wars, with two world wars. The loss of life was staggering. The fire bombing of Dresden, the Battle for Britain, the multiple Battles of the Somme, all resulting in devastating losses, primarily civilian for the first two, and soldiers in the third example(s). Now, fast forward to the modern day. The idea of losing 200,000 men in ONE BATTLE* is unimaginable, let alone for a whole war. Our tolerance for killing has decreased over time. We are willing to risk a lot less in the action of combat. This is my particular view, but if the trend continues, we may eventually become so sick of war that world peace may prevail. I can only be peaceful for myself, as can we all.

In light of this risk for given action, we risk quite a lot by going out on the highway. Travel by car is still more dangerous than by plane, train or bus. I see people trying to get someplace so fast that it seems they are ok with taking that increased danger onto their shoulders. Perhaps they fail to realize that their behavior also puts others in a chancier situation. I can fault them for this. I can judge until the cows come home, and believe me I have. Now, I feel I can step back and look at the bigger picture. Our human condition renders us unable to see what is going on in their minds. Maybe they are going to a hospital to watch their first child’s birth. Maybe they are really stressed out from a day at a job they don't like and want to get away from it. (granted that is totally their own fault and they can change that at any time.) Regardless of the reason, people all have their own reasons, logical or not. Justified or not. It doesn't matter. For those who hurry, I feel deep compassion. Life moves as fast as you think it does, and if you think you're running out of time, then you probably are. Just don't take the rest of us with you please. If you do decide to go out in a blaze of glory though, I'm sure we could arrange a song for you. (I may not choose to sing it though).

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Somme#Casualties