Speed Bumps
12/01/2003 02:50 p.m.
Riding to my husband's office for three days last week for a retirement course we took together, I was appalled (as I have been before on this exercise in the underground parking lot there) at the way those government workers, vast numbers of them, start their day and jolt their bodies, without cushioning, and my tummy, back and neck didn't appreciate it. I thought of pregnant women and know when I was pregnant, especially in the first four months, I'd have not trusted this to be good for us (child and me). OF course I know friends who have these at their residence areas too, and it's something I've thought about for them too. With lots of children in the area, they're warranted, but seem so obtrusional health-wise. Has anyone done any studies of repercussions, I wonder? So I wrote this poem draft in my new birthday journal from my sister, (I've been so spoiled by family and friends for my 50th I can't get over it, but that's something else to write about one day.)
~~~~~~

Speed Bumps

Some people have to drive over speed bumps
every day, three or more in a row, twice or more often
enduring the ritual jars to stomach and back
without shock absorbers in their bodies

speed bumps! a necessary evil?

who knows the long-term
or immediate damages incurred from this man-made impediment
to the pace of motion?

Speed bumps!
(they repeat, like I do here)
sometimes follow warning signs
before they are encountered

perhaps relationships should have
speed bumps
external controls set out in advance
to protect more than one party, from themselves
and/or others
keep the risk from passion in check
reactions in slower motion

but likely
even if one knows the bumps are inevitable
and where they'll present themselves
no bracing or avoidance would work
to soothe or eliminate the impact

if that road must be the one taken
the driver rides them out
and if it becomes routine

after years of de-sensitization
to the jarring,
he seems to accept the assaults
as part
of a better or vital package
rendering him oblivious to
the disruption and its eventual toll
~~~

It makes me think of Garth Brook's song, The Dance, one of my favorites, in which the conclusion is I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance.

And yes, I agree, our lives are better left to chance. But I also agree we need something better but like speed bumps along the way on the concrete road, for cars, (to protect everyone)and something better than pain and loss in relationships, as necessary evils along with the benefits, but being human, we are flawed. And so need speed bumps. The irony is that sometimes caution and slow pace can still get take you into dilemmas.

I am currently Creative
I am listening to the good hum of computer