That big highway

After writing eight straight weeks as The Spectator, I was fretting about what to write for this week. It's Tuesday morning (deadline is hours away), I get into the car to drive to work but am still without any great ideas on what to write about. I turn the radio on and hope I can get some inspiration from either the radio presenter or a song and luckily for me, a song I hear has inspired me enough to come up with a column.

It's a song I've listened to a few times and really like. It's called “Life is a highway” and somehow I can relate to it very well because I often look at my life as if it were, maybe not a highway, but a road and by this I mean a very Sri Lankan road. (I don't think anyone living in this paradise isle of ours needs a description of this).

Very often when I am on the road, I get to thinking, how our lives are full of bends, turns and potholes, going uphill and downhill, with occasional U turns, slippery places at which we need to slow down, times when the lights are green and we need to move on and times when we need to stop or slow down and also have the occasional cattle crossing in front obstructing us. Aren't they so illustrative of what our lives are really like? I remember someone telling me how bored he got when he was driving along those straight, smooth, perfectly laid out roads in the European country he has made his adopted home. You get your vehicle onto top gear and just drive straight on and the chances are you will easily doze off. But get on a road full of turns and bends; you are wide awake and more attentive about where you are going. If life was one straight, smooth road, I guess many of us would just doze off as there would be no unanticipated pitfalls ahead for us.

Comparing life to a highway is a great maxim if you take a little time to reflect on it. I have a bad habit of day dreaming while I am on the road at times (not a good idea when driving), which is why I miss the bus rides which I haven't ventured into for sometime. If you can get a corner seat on a bus and have a somewhat long trip ahead of you, it's the perfect time to contemplate the similarity between a road and life.

All of us would obviously like to have a life with fewer upheavals as possible but then there are things that are within our control and those that are beyond our control. There are choices we can make in life that can make the ride less bumpy. And as for things that are beyond our control, we can only fasten the seat belt, sit back and try to enjoy the ride as much as possible, however unpleasant and difficult it may be.

The only lives I have seen up close and intimately are those of members of my family and my close friends and I know that there have been so many ups and down in each of their lives. In some cases the seemingly perfect lives have turned topsy turvy overnight. It's sad when this kind of thing happens but that is the uncertainly of life.

As far as my life goes, I think it hasn't been too bumpy so far but I have had the usual ups and downs all of which I like to put down to experience. Despite the similarity between a road and life, there is one difference. There is no highway code to guide us through our lives unlike when you are driving. But some of the same rules apply.

While driving you need to be alert, a little cautious, accelerate at times and apply the brakes when the need arises and like me flout the rules once in a way. You need to follow the same rules in life as well. If life is a perfect, smooth drive with nothing exciting a waiting us at the next bend, it would be pretty boring, I would say.