Bumps in the road

 

We drove this stretch of road several times during our visit to Joshua Tree. It always made me smile. When they put the road in, they decided to just pave the terrain as it was, instead of smoothing the path and then paving a level surface.

When I lived in Virginia, I sometimes drove along a road that started just like this one, as a 2-lane country road that went up and down with the terrain (quite a bit more dramatic than this). As traffic on the road increased over time, they decided to make a parallel road separated by a median, resulting in 2 separate lanes each direction. However, for the second two lanes, they first leveled the roadbed before paving, cutting through the hills. So in one direction, the cars go up and down like a gentle roller coaster, while in the other they travel straight and level.

I often wondered about the pros and cons of the two approaches. The older, "hilly" version was less disruptive to the environment, kept the feel of the countryside, and required less preparation before paving - and probably required traffic to slow down! The "leveling" solution involved up-front work with heavy land moving equipment, but then the preparation of the road base and the paving would have been easier and required less material. I expect there would be some safety benefits to the level solution of increased visibility for drivers (especially where the hills were higher and deeper), and less disruption of oncoming headlight beams at night since the lights get directed up and down as oncoming cars change incline.

Sometimes life can feel like we are on the roller coaster road - climbing the hills of challenges or coasting through downhill times of less effort required or less involvement. Sometimes we long for the periods of just moving forward on a level stretch - no obstacles, no challenges, just good steady progress.

Sometimes we can work our way into a situation of more level life. We "get our ducks in a row" (borrowing a completely different analogy) and are less likely to have to deal with the sudden changes or challenges.

But sometimes there are blessings that come from the roller coaster life as well. We may appreciate the change in scenery or pace; we may see faster growth from the challenges of climbing some hills. In any case, we should always remember that the uphill doesn't go on forever. We will eventually reach the crest of our challenge and watch things level out, or even be able to coast down the other side for a while.

I #GiveThanks for the occasional "roller coaster" in my life, and the promise that the road won't be uphill forever.