Sunday, December 28, 2008
Mater's Traffic Plan
"All change is not growth, as all movement is not forward."
-Ellen Glasgow
Mater grew up in a tiny green hamlet in England.
I knew this, of course, just as I know that today the place of her childhood is as crumbly and antiquated as ever, tufts of determined grass bisecting the smaller lanes and roadways. Time swept through the little nook but altered little in its path.
What I discovered just last month, however, much to my astonishment, is that when my mother was a schoolgirl, she submitted an essay with detailed suggestions on how to relieve the local traffic system and restructure the roads for efficiency- and that she subsequently won a prize for her efforts.
While I am heartened by the new knowledge of Mater's endeavours, I am also refreshed by the fact that, to judge by the present condition of the village, her advice was neither taken into account nor utilised. Progress, for all the praise heaped upon it, is not always hospitable. A stony road with grass streaming through its middle will forever, to my eyes, be the most telling sign of an area's health, and of its indelible character.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
No flyovers in the little town yet. I'm sure the advice was sage coming from Mater. Bebe, my wife, often has great ideas for traffic planners and others responsible for directing our lives. I have suggested she write a book to make all her ideas available to civil engineers, but so far she is content telling them to me. Pappy
Texican, often, I think, it's the people who live and work in a place that know it best who would be most qualified to make suggestions about changing it, so Bebe ought to write that book. I second the motion ;)
Post a Comment