Thoughts about Life and Streets
I was driving up Grand this evening, towards the Veterans' Hospital where my grandfather is recovering after his big knee surgery. (He's fine, if you were wondering. His knee has been giving him trouble for ages and so he just had an operation to fix that. It's going to hurt like hell for a while but then it will be alright.) The hospital is at the corner of Grand and Delmar, and the name of the intersection, "Grand and Delmar," stuck in my mouth for a little bit.
I like intersections more than I like streets. People drive down streets, but people do things at intersections. We might say that there is a Walgreen's on Gravois, but unless we say that it's at Grand and Gravois, people don't know quite what we're talking about. Things- real things, stores and buildings, homes, people, lives- they are at the intersections.
A song once said that life is a highway, but that just isn't true. Highways are long, straight, with few suprises and little change in the traffic. Sometimes there's build-up, sometimes there's a change in the speed limit, but ultimately on the highway one tends to get on at one point and get off at another. But life isn't like that, really.
It's a grid of city blocks; dozens and dozens of streets, intersecting, running parallel to one another, turning at funny angles, littered with shops and parks and resturaunts. And I don't even mean that in the grand philosophical way, either; it's the truth.
Grand and Arsenal- where I went to trivia night with the Spellers.
Pennsylvania and Pestalozzi- where my house has been for eighteen years.
Grand and Gravois- where Alex pretended to have abandoned me and Kenny at the Pizza Hut.
McPherson and Sarah- where I went to high school.
And there's more. Some little bit of life, sometimes many larger bits of life. They take place on the intersections. We drive along our streets, find areas where we drive a little slower, or speed through the lights before they change. Places where we turn onto a different route, or stop and see whatever is in that building on the corner.
Life is at the intersections.
I like intersections more than I like streets. People drive down streets, but people do things at intersections. We might say that there is a Walgreen's on Gravois, but unless we say that it's at Grand and Gravois, people don't know quite what we're talking about. Things- real things, stores and buildings, homes, people, lives- they are at the intersections.
A song once said that life is a highway, but that just isn't true. Highways are long, straight, with few suprises and little change in the traffic. Sometimes there's build-up, sometimes there's a change in the speed limit, but ultimately on the highway one tends to get on at one point and get off at another. But life isn't like that, really.
It's a grid of city blocks; dozens and dozens of streets, intersecting, running parallel to one another, turning at funny angles, littered with shops and parks and resturaunts. And I don't even mean that in the grand philosophical way, either; it's the truth.
Grand and Arsenal- where I went to trivia night with the Spellers.
Pennsylvania and Pestalozzi- where my house has been for eighteen years.
Grand and Gravois- where Alex pretended to have abandoned me and Kenny at the Pizza Hut.
McPherson and Sarah- where I went to high school.
And there's more. Some little bit of life, sometimes many larger bits of life. They take place on the intersections. We drive along our streets, find areas where we drive a little slower, or speed through the lights before they change. Places where we turn onto a different route, or stop and see whatever is in that building on the corner.
Life is at the intersections.