Paths Crossing

Normally, when we're driving, we don't think much about the drivers of the other cars. We only see their cars, and the inconveniences they pose to us. We think about how they're driving too slowly for our liking, how much we'd like it if they'd stop tailgating us, or how we must faster we'd be able to get to where we're going if 90% of them weren't there.

Sometimes, however, I'm at the head of the line at an intersection, waiting to turn, and I watch the opposing traffic go past me, and I look at the faces of the drivers. And I think about the thousands of drivers I past by every day. Each one of them has their destination they're trying to get to, a starting point from which that journey began. Each of them has their reason why they're trying to get there, and their plans for what to do when they get there. Look beyond the immediate circumstances of the where and why of their trip, each of them has something different going through their mind. Each of them has their plans, their goals, their desires, their hopes and their dreams.

Each and every one of those drivers represents a story. There are thousands upon thousands stories to be found on our roadways every minute of every day. And no matter how different we all are, no matter how different our backgrounds, or our stories, we all have one thing we have in common: we're all on that road. Our stories can be and are very, very different, but they're just similar enough to find us on the same road at the same time. That driver in that car next to you might be completely opposite from you. They might be blasting music you find repulsing, loving an outfit you think is a fashion nightmare, and you might not even want to say hi to them if you walked by them. And yet there you are, driving next to each other on that road.

This world, and everything that goes on in it is creating by those our stories crossing paths. Sometimes, we help write each other's stories. Other times, we're tiny little footnotes scribbled at the bottom of the page. But together, all of our stories combine to form one very large, complex, fascinating story: the human story.