Not so for The Hub. I'm gonna call him a natural rule breaker. From his youngin' years I know this fella has had a thing for causing some dust to stir. Driving in a car is no exception. Often, at get-off-from-work time I travel a road that is a long stretch of inching along, stoplight to stoplight, and very little acceleration. I've come to accept that this 16 miles from office to my door will take me an hour to an hour and a half. Welcome to NOVA life.
Yesterday, The Hub happened to pick me up at said job of mine. As soon as we hit our long stretch, he veered right and hit the service road. Much to my horror. What kind of person does such a thing? He knows full well that he won't be turning right for at least 10 miles. So he's really going to float all the way down this service road, as far as his pretty little heart can go, whizzing past all these cars on our left at a standstill? Yup, that's exactly what he intended to do.
He and I had quite the chuckle as he approached each stop sign on our service road travels and debated, with his mind, and for a few seconds with the steering wheel, as to whether to dive back into traffic or risk it and go a couple of blocks more. You should know that the man has no idea where the service road ends exactly. And wouldn't that be something, to go through all that to beat traffic, only to get stuck somewhere and have to backtrack.
As I sat in the seat quite amused, and horrified at the same time, he remarked to me that he knew this was something I would never do. Of course not, I told him. I would be in that traffic line like everyone else. Because that's the right thing to do. How do we define right? Well, if I know I'm not turning right I'm not coasting down the service road, pretending I'll eventually be turning right, just to skip all that traffic. I am not a sacrifice everyone else to get ahead kind of girl. The Hub, on the other hand, didn't even hesitate. No way he was sitting in that long line, he said. We spent the next 15 minutes flying past all these stand-stillers as we laughed until we had tears in our eyes.
We get further up ahead and he dips into the mainstream world again. He remarks at how traffic is so light up here. "Oh," he says "we left all the traffic back there." Funny guy. I must confess we got home at least 15 minutes earlier than I normally would have on this route. I thought of our adventure and how it really compares to how we approach life. We drive the way we live. For him, he is a risk taker. He's going to find an easier, better, and sometimes quicker way to achieve a goal. If it means he passes those that refuse to look to the right, then he'll do it. Because it just makes sense to keep it moving. Me? Well, shoot. I'll just sit in the traffic, stuck in the thought that it isn't fair to those other people if I pass them. They are waiting too, you know? It's the compassion in me. They gotta wait so I should wait too, right? And besides, we are supposed to be on the main road. We go on the service road if we're turning and I'm not turning.
Which one is better? All the time, neither is better. I don't condone or judge either one. Oh, don't be mistaken, I was judging all over him as I rolled my eyes and shook my head, laughing all the way. But that's because he's The Hub. I get to give him a hard time like I get a paycheck for doing it. The truth is our personalities guide our decisions. Some of us are going to get out there and do it. Some of us are going to wait until the road opens up in front of us. Either way, drive safe.
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