A road journey is somewhat similar to the journey of life. Driving a car with steering wheel in the hand can be likened to living a life, trying to control the events, steering it in a direction of one’s choice.
To quote William Henley from his poem Invictus, “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul”. This is how I feel when I drive. My car becomes my fate. I can control it; I know where I am heading. I can accelerate and overtake, or decelerate and fall behind, watching others pass by. I can take risks or play safe. When the roads turn bad, I slow down, just as a bad patch in life holds one back. And we wait for the road to improve like we wait for the bad times to pass away and good ones to roll again. "This too shall pass away" I think and drive on towards my destination.
This quote by Norton Juster with a slight alteration sounds apt here, “The most important reason for driving from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and I took great pleasure in doing just that”
Of course just as it happens in life, things can get unpredictable, undesirable, hostile situations can crop up, circumstances beyond one’s control. It’s all about handling such situations and emerging out stronger, chastised and experienced. It not only about me and myself but observing others too, taking care not to get stepped on and not to step on. Once the journey is done and destination reached, I sit back, relax enjoy the present and reflect on the way driven. It's my game, my rules.
Nothing can epitomize the journey of our life more than a long drive to a destination.
As Ernest Hemmingway wrote “It’s good to have an end to journey toward; but it’s the journey that matters, in the end”.
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