the zen of traffic

people have said that "Life is the journey, not the destination." I've always found that a bit morbid, because it begs the question, if life is a journey, what IS the destination? Are we just journeying straight to our death? What kind of a destination is that?

Thinking about it just now, I realized there's another way to understand it.

Life is the challenges, opportunities, encounters, and boring bits where you listen to your iPod which make up a journey. The destination is up to you. I would even say that really, the destination IS you, because where you are going is what you are becoming, is part of what you are.

If you're heading to Starbucks for coffee for example, you know you want starbucks, its a clear destination in your mind, and you know of a Starbucks Coffee in certain place. So you hop in your car and you take off. You can't control the traffic, the delays, the roadblocks, the vehicle breakdowns, the idiots on thier cellphones who rear end you, or the psychotic guy with the rifle. Some days you may hit all greens, some days every light will be red. It's a beat of life that you fall into. The point is there are things you simply can't control about the drive.

The destination is yours. As long as you keep that vision of scalding hot supercafinated coffee clear in your mind, you will achieve it. Maybe you get pulled over for speeding, maybe they've closed the local Starbucks for renovation; all it means is you'll get there a little later. It's not like that was the only place in the universe where you can get starbucks.

But the journey can change you too. Maybe a microbus pulls up next to you and you see a hippie driving with a big "Stop Globalization" sign on the side. You might decide that Starbucks is too corporate and elitist, and decide to go find a local coffeehouse run by beat poets.

Or you hear a news story on NPR about the health benefits of tea over coffee and you might decide to not go to a coffeehouse at all. Or you might see an advertisement for a new Banana Caramel Frappuchino and begin to salivate. It really depends how badly you initially wanted that coffee, and what you're willing to do to get it.

I think that the key in life is learning to recognize the alternative routes, to roll with the delays and detours, to look for the key openings in traffic, and to understand that a lane ending in 500 feet is not the end of the road. And to be able to weight the value of that coffee versus the sacrifices you have make along the way. Is that coffee worth fighting rush hour traffic? how badly do you need it RIGHT NOW? Is it worth speeding for, worth a police chase and jailtime, worth even the three dollars? The important thing is to Think and decide for yourself.

It seems so easy to fall into a routine, doing the same thing, thinking in the same little circles, working in autopilot. Do you get coffee every day? Why? Habit? because your body has a chemical dependancy? Acknowlege it! How does the reason make you feel? It makes getting coffee a life-affirming experiance. It's coffee with a Purpose.

When I get coffee, it makes me think "what should I get?" (after "why's this stuff so expensive?") which makes me ask, "how do I feel? what sounds good? how late do I have to work tonight?" which begs the question "why am I artificially enhancing my system beyond its natural boundarys?" and "is the work i'm doing worth circumventing nature and losing this much sleep?" These are usually easy and simple questions to answer. If its anything relating to studio, the answer is yes. I mean, it's a coffee in relation to a college degree.

Ok I've rambled enough and I'm submitting to the bus tomorrow, so I will clamber down from my soap box and go to bed.