Stop Sign #1 (left) Stop Sign #2 (right)
Our small town has experienced construction lately. Two of the newest necessities in town resulting from the new highways and byways are stop signs. I’ve lived in this town ten years and never questioned the fact that it had no street markers or stop signs. As a matter of fact, for the majority of my marriage I didn’t even know my street’s name when asked to provide a physical address for catalog orders. I trusted my new never-go wrong hubby that Hickory Street was my new home. I didn't know at the time that was his best guess. At least I trusted him enough to put it on my driver’s license.
Midway through my marriage, I spent time volunteering for the City of Goree. One day at the office, I lay eyes on a city map for the very first time. Low-n-behold, I live on Oak Street! Oh no, I’m illegal or rather my DL is wrong and that means that I’m breaking the law. I, for the most part (never-say-never), obey the laws of the land. I righted the wrong ASAP.
Now, back to why a town like mine doesn’t need stop signs…we have built in speed unbumps. I think in laymen’s terms they are referred to as potholes. We’ve never had a nice enough road for anyone to speed down, unless they wanted to spend some dough on a front-end alignment. All-end alignment, really. So, now with our pretty new road comes confusion and danger. The TX DOT said it was prudent for us to accept their offer of a no-thru-truck sign and two stop signs. We graciously accepted their offer and now we are up-town.
Well, this up-town girl was thinkin’ ‘bout them there stop signs. Just kidding. Not kidding about pondering the stop signs, though. The hick-talk, yes. I thought it strange that a town could function without stop signs. We have intersections just like the rest of the world, so why has it worked this long without stop signs? I don’t really know. Then, I thought about the present struggle in my life .
Two years and fifty pounds ago, I thought life was a walk in the park. Now that I’ve gained two years and fifty+ pounds, it’s not so easy. It dawned on me that I grew up in an environment where there were no stop signs as far as eating was concerned. And now as an adult, I am struggling with obeying the stop signs in my eating habits.
Some stop signs clearly exist, but they are so new that I bolt right through the intersection before realizing it. Others may be like sign #2, they are hidden from my sight and I clearly don’t even know it’s there until it’s too late. Then, there is the rest of our town that doesn’t have stop signs and everyone makes up the rules as they go. I'll yield this time, but not on my birthday--so there I go changing the rules as I go. Oh, and do not kid yourself for a moment, I see some of the stop signs just fine and choose to ignore ‘em pretty as ya please.
All that to say this, I need wisdom and strength to obey. I may even need a refresher course in driver’s ed. Or, I may need to learn to survive in a world or even a town without stop signs. It’s not easy. Our world says go and God says stop. Our world says yes and God says no. The world says up and God says down. Opposites in every way, I’m living the viva loca. Just like the salmon (I think that’s the fish?), I’m trying to swim upstream to do what? Die. Die to self that is…
Midway through my marriage, I spent time volunteering for the City of Goree. One day at the office, I lay eyes on a city map for the very first time. Low-n-behold, I live on Oak Street! Oh no, I’m illegal or rather my DL is wrong and that means that I’m breaking the law. I, for the most part (never-say-never), obey the laws of the land. I righted the wrong ASAP.
Now, back to why a town like mine doesn’t need stop signs…we have built in speed unbumps. I think in laymen’s terms they are referred to as potholes. We’ve never had a nice enough road for anyone to speed down, unless they wanted to spend some dough on a front-end alignment. All-end alignment, really. So, now with our pretty new road comes confusion and danger. The TX DOT said it was prudent for us to accept their offer of a no-thru-truck sign and two stop signs. We graciously accepted their offer and now we are up-town.
Well, this up-town girl was thinkin’ ‘bout them there stop signs. Just kidding. Not kidding about pondering the stop signs, though. The hick-talk, yes. I thought it strange that a town could function without stop signs. We have intersections just like the rest of the world, so why has it worked this long without stop signs? I don’t really know. Then, I thought about the present struggle in my life .
Two years and fifty pounds ago, I thought life was a walk in the park. Now that I’ve gained two years and fifty+ pounds, it’s not so easy. It dawned on me that I grew up in an environment where there were no stop signs as far as eating was concerned. And now as an adult, I am struggling with obeying the stop signs in my eating habits.
Some stop signs clearly exist, but they are so new that I bolt right through the intersection before realizing it. Others may be like sign #2, they are hidden from my sight and I clearly don’t even know it’s there until it’s too late. Then, there is the rest of our town that doesn’t have stop signs and everyone makes up the rules as they go. I'll yield this time, but not on my birthday--so there I go changing the rules as I go. Oh, and do not kid yourself for a moment, I see some of the stop signs just fine and choose to ignore ‘em pretty as ya please.
All that to say this, I need wisdom and strength to obey. I may even need a refresher course in driver’s ed. Or, I may need to learn to survive in a world or even a town without stop signs. It’s not easy. Our world says go and God says stop. Our world says yes and God says no. The world says up and God says down. Opposites in every way, I’m living the viva loca. Just like the salmon (I think that’s the fish?), I’m trying to swim upstream to do what? Die. Die to self that is…
2 comments:
Tam...you have a gift...other than all the more obvious ones!
The gift of relating everyday things (like the stop signs) to the 'giants' in your life (50+ pounds).
Just another sign of your "being in touch".
Wisdom and strength? That's my on-going conversation with God.
Well this is a nice surprise seeing Goree. Thanks to you for doing this piece. What is going on in Goree. Is it rebuilding. Will Trainhams Grocery Be reopening. Tell that little brat hubby of yours Beverly is loving to see he is finally 50. He used to drive Janey and me nuts. Stay in touch it gets lonely here in CA away from Goree.
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