Lessons in Traffic

With my fancy new daily drive, I've had a lot of time to play around in traffic.  Traffic's kinda one of those funky experiences of city life that can sometimes be puzzling.  I've always wondered, why can it be so annoying?  How does so much stress, tension, and anxiety come out of just sitting around in a metal box, surrounded by other people lounging around in their own metal boxes?  I kinda figure it's like doing laundry: don't really have to do much, but it requires full attention because you can't really do anything else either, and how annoying is that?

Traffic doesn't really bother me like it did when I first started driving.  Actually, I kinda enjoy it!  There's a lot of people watching to be done, a lot of behavior that comes out through driving that wouldn't normally be seen, lots of time to actually see the area on either side of the road.  My favorite part of traffic though, is controlling it.

When I first got out on the road, I was always puzzled and annoyed at those points of dead traffic where there was nothing going on!  Everyone's driving fine, and then suddenly we're all stopped.  After slowly creeping along for a couple'a miles or so, there'd be this point where it'd all dissappear, and we'd just start speeding back up like nothing happened!  I was one of those kids that was all "Gah!  Didn't even get to see an accident or nothin'!" I realize now that that's such a horrible thing to wish for, but at the time it at least sounded pretty cool.

Anyway, I started paying more attention to these areas, and realized that these dead spots were really just accumulations of energy from some earlier moment.  Somebody would have to slow down or cut into a lane or something, the people behind them would have to hit their brakes, which would cause somebody else to, yadda yadda yadda... that moment is frozen in time and forever more others will stop at that point, passing on the tales of the car, the car who slammeth it's brakes in times of old...Until I come along.

At some point, I realized that there's no reason for this persistance of information, y'know? It's a highway, not a hard drive.  I passingly played with the ideas of storing messages in the traffic; a team of cars out on the highway, hitting their brakes at specific points in certain lanes, and they would persist as long as as there was a steady flow of cars to carry it on through time.  We'd plan bank robberies like this, or pass on government secrets we'd lifted from high-security buildings... Data integrity would be pretty low, though...it'd only take one asshole on a cell phone to skew the info, potentially causing massive nuclear wars and so much carnage!! I decided to be content in erasing these "knots" of traffic as I went along.

These days, I drive all slowly and consistently while in areas of heavy traffic and I make a game'a "eating" the dead spots out of the traffic.  It's a lot of fun, actually!  Leave some area in front of my car, I see all the brake lights ahead as people speed unsuspectingly into the trap time has left for them.  Some people get frustrated, seeing all the tempting open space that I've left ahead and zip into another lane just to slide back in front of me.  They soon meet the fruits of their doing, though and end up slamming their brakes like the rest of them.  I move on.

I stand strong, steadily moving towards my prey.  If I falter in my faith, hitting my brakes, then I'll just perpetuate the clot; except it will have creeped backwards and then what will I have done?  I push on.  The red lights ignite on the car that's in front of me, the time has come!  I maintain my speed, and right as I'm about to enter the danger zone of the fender-bender, the car shakes off the pause, regains his speed, and time is defeated! 

I glance back in my rear view, and see only a smooth line of cars.  No longer will this spot be troubled by the lights of brakes and the screeching of tires.  The people behind me don't know what I've saved them from, but that's alright.  They're travelling a little slower for the ordeal, but most importantly they're travelling consistently.  With consistency comes relaxation, with relaxation, acceptance, and with acceptance the loss of frustration.

So, like I said, I've had a lot of time to sit around in traffic and let my mind run.  This morning, I couldn't help but wonder...can't I make this into a metaphor for enlightenment?  (Yeah, i have LOTS of time these days...)

Cause really, this is how it seems to me.  There's blockages of thought that are whirlpools of past thought and experience.  As long as our thoughts feed those pools, they'll persist.  Is meditation and the 'middle way' simply the calm, steady pace of the traffic of our minds?  And what about the wear and tear we save on our 'vehicles'?  Less peddle-pushin', less friction, less stop, less go. And what about muscles and body work?  Are the knots in our muscles, tales of a time past when we tensed them up, and never let go?  And..and...sigh, never mind.  It's all just a good time, and now it's time to work :)