Roadside Assistance

In my continuing efforts to downsize and de-clutter, I came across some books in my bookcase by a favorite author, Kris Radish.  Since it's been a couple years since I have read any of her books I looked on her website and she has a new non-fiction book out, "Gravel on the Side of the Road."  The title sounds interesting and got me thinking on this topic.  Take a trip with me and my mind as we explore gravel on the side of the road.

Most people have walked down a two-lane country road at some point in their lives.   The road is paved with blacktop with the stripes and slashes down the middle giving us directions on where to safely pass another car.  The shoulder of the road is gravel.  Why?  Why not pave all the way to the ditches?  I can think of two reasons, one is the expense of additional blacktop and two, the gravel serves as a warning to the drivers. 

Driving on gravel can make a god-awful sound and make your car shake due to the rough texture of the gravel.  If you fall asleep at the wheel, either physically or mentally (day-dreaming), that gravel will certainly wake you up in a hurry.  Then you can straighten out your driving.  We know this is a good reason for gravel because roads that are paved through the shoulder of the road have a rumble-strip which awakens us when we have gone to far astray on the road. A rumble-strip serves the same purpose as gravel shoulders. 

Now, think about walking on that two-lane country road.  If you were taught properly, you walk on the side of the road facing traffic, so you can see the vehicles coming towards you.  Most of us walk on the paved portion of the road whenever possible, because it's easier on our feet and body.  It's quieter too, which allows to enjoy the scenery and perhaps day-dream a little too.  Here comes a car, we step off the paved road and start walking on the gravel.  Whoa!  What a difference!  It's rough and uneven, we feel unsteady. As we walk on the gravel, the sound coming from our shoes contacting the gravel is loud.  There is no time to day-dream as we maneuver the uneven gravel.  We may even have to stop and wait for the oncoming car to pass us so that we can step back on the paved road once we see no other on-coming cars. We feel fortunate to get back to the smooth surface and quietness of our steps.

Some people walk with traffic and they must listen for cars coming upon them from the back.  Again, a person can easily become complacent and start day-dreaming while walking.  Then the beep of a car's horn makes us jump out of the way and onto the gravel.  Once we are on the gravel, we are no different than the person on the other side of the road traveling the same direction.  It's rough and uneven, we have a hard time hearing if another car is coming, so we must turn around and look where we have come from to see if it's safe to step back on the paved road.

Sometimes the traffic on the road and "traffic" in our world leaves us no other choice than walking on the gravel.  Sometimes, this walk on the gravel can be a long time.  We become easily tired from walking on the uneven road shoulder and our feet hurt, feeling every piece of gravel through the soles of our shoes. We become irritable and frustrated.  This is no walk-in-the-park or walk-on-the-pavement! 

As we travel through our world, we may have long miles (stretches of time) that we are on the pavement, nice and easy.  Or we may have long miles on the shoulder, tired and hurting.  Who or what determines how many miles we walk on either the pavement or the gravel?  Is it the number of cars whirling through our world and using the pavement?  Is it our choice to walk rather than drive one of the cars.  Is it our choice to take the busy road rather than the road less-traveled?

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to my questions.  Nor is there a right or wrong way to travel.  But I do believe that we must be aware that people that we meet and know may be traveling the gravel shoulder and they need our support, our shoulders to keep them upright and moving forward.  Are we willing to remember what it was like in our past, walking on the gravel on the side of road?  Are we willing to show empathy?  Our we willing to offer roadside assistance?