I like riding in cars.  There’s something decidedly exciting about setting off on a road trip, especially an unplanned one.  When there’s no real destination, there’s no real pressure to be anywhere, and so the trip itself becomes the focus.  All too often, it seems, getting there seems to take all the fun out of going there.  Life is a lot like that.  Too often, people get caught up in the final destination, the goal, whether it be buying a dream house, making vice-president, or getting to make that trip to Europe someday.  It’s so easy to forget that the destination is always going to be there, and it’s not whether or not we arrive, but how we get there. If you don’t pay attention to how you get there, it’s really hard to retrace your steps and continue on the right way if you make a wrong turn. Mildly annoying when we’re talking about driving, a much larger problem if we’re talking about life. Eventually, you’ll end up hopelessly lost and dependent upon total strangers to give you directions back to the highway.  That’s assuming they know the way, and can explain it adequately.

Now that I come to think of it, I’ve never been that fond of highways, anyway.  Given the choice, I’d much rather take a back road.  It takes longer, but there’s so much more to see. Let me rephrase that.  There’s something to see, period.  Highways provide views of billboards, trucks, and other people rushing to their destinations.  Sometimes you can see something really nice from the highway, like a mountain or an interesting building, but you can’t get to it. You can’t actually drive right up to it and experience it, unless there’s an exit handy, in which case you can bet that it’s mobbed with a whole bunch of other people who have also come off the highway to see it.  Just another canned experience for the masses. Take the highway to your Life destination if you want, but you’ll miss the interesting sights along the way. I’ll take the winding roads and stop at a few antique shops on the way, maybe stop for lunch at some greasy spoon that just happens to serve great meatloaf, or roast beef, or lamb fries, who knows? It’s much more interesting than stopping at the officially sanctioned rest area fast food joint. Even if you end up hating the lamb fries of life, at least you’ve tasted them.