Roundabout Life

Over the past few years, the city that I live in has started installing more and more roundabouts in intersections. At first, I wasn’t sure why they would do that, but then I was told that these would help us save gas because people wouldn’t have to stop as frequently as they would if a stop sign had been placed in the same spot. Made some sense, so okay. Not that there was anything I could do about it. Anyway, I learned rather quickly what the rules of the traffic circle were. Basically, if someone is in there, they have the right of way, and I need to wait until it’s clear. Simple enough, or so I thought.

It all seemed to work well for a while, but then I started seeing more and more people who felt that they should just bolt out into the circle regardless of who was in there or how close they were. This seemed to cause a lot of hard feelings in addition to scared drivers!

So, as I tend to do often, I looked at this as a great opportunity to compare life to a roundabout, and it seemed to work well. Staying with me? Okay, here we go.

In life, for the most part, we travel straight with an occasional bend in the road and maybe a right turn or left turn just when we need to adjust our course. If we’re lucky, there are sign posts and maps along the way, to help us reach all of the destinations that we want to in life. Then, somebody up and decides that they’re going to put up a roundabout. It throws some new rules into our everyday travel through life, and makes it so that you discover how many strange and unknowing people there really are around you. You do your best to keep on going, but every now and again, there’s something that happens to cause you to have to circle another time. Did you miss the turn that you needed by not being prepared? Were you feeling the pressure of the guy behind you or others competing with you? Whatever the reason, you find yourself going around a second time. Eventually, though, you make it out alive and none the worse for wear. In fact, you make it out and find yourself a little more savvy when it comes to maneuvering these traffic circles of life. 

When you find things that apparently send you spinning, out of control, and wondering where you’ll go next to get out of this, you eventually find your way to a better place and realize that you now know more than you did before the event. It’s never just smooth sailing through life. If it were, there would be no challenge and nothing to shoot for. As it is, life’s little roundabouts help us all to take a breath and then carry on, knowing that our destination is just up ahead. Keep going folks. You’ll get there, maybe a little dizzy, but better for having thought your way through it.

Drew