Old Roads
I get to travel around Oklahoma as part of my job. Yesterday, a local from Ottawa County directed me to an old stretch of highway that was originally part of Route 66. The first section of the road I found was almost completely obliterated. The county had placed gravel over it to make it passable, and between the crushed rock I could make out the remants of failed, cracked asphalt. I had almost given up on finding anything substantial when I saw a small sign that read “Historical Route 66.” I knew I was in the right place and pressed on. My persistence was rewarded a few minutes later when I rounded a bend and found this wonderful section of road still intact.
The actual road was only wide enough for my car. It’s surface was cracked and blemished much like a well-worn leather jacket or the weathered hands of an elderly farmer. I’m not usually one for sentimentality, but this small section of unused road made me stop and wonder about the travelers who crossed this very spot moving east and west across our nation–those who fled Oklahoma during the Dust Bowl years, those like my grandparents who borrowed and begged their way west during the Great Depression looking for work, those looking for a new beginning any place other than where they were, and those on an adventure to see the vastness and wonder of our country.
Today we zoom along at remarkable speeds down wide, smooth interstates. We jump from Chicago to Los Angeles in a couple of hours by plane. We get where we are going faster, but somehow I think we miss the journey. Yes, our modern travel allows us to miss the numerous breakdowns, the hot wind in our face, and the exhaustion of traveling day after day toward our destination. I would argue, however, these are part of the experience of travel that teach us patience and contentment with what is. Hurried travel makes us miss the beauty of our remarkable country. We miss the conversations and relationships we experience along the way. We lose an approach to life that offers the opportunity for reflection and contentment. In my life, I want to be less concerned about getting where I’m going, and more concerned with being where I am along the way.
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