Oh, Toto, Come Back!
A little dog wrenched my heart yesterday.
I was driving down the Massachusetts Turnpike lost in highway driving thought when a car about 200 feet in front of me swerved wildly, cut over two lanes and screeched to a halt in the breakdown lane.
Seconds later I knew why.
A Toto look alike – possibly a black Cairn Terrier – came galloping up the breakdown lane. He looked bewildered as we quickly passed each other. Worried about him, I looked into my rear view mirror and saw him start darting in and out of the swerving right lane traffic. He probably got loose and wandered up from one of the streets that backed up to the Pike.
I don’t know what happened to the little guy or the cars behind me doing their best to avoid him. The last thing I expected on a major highway was to see a little dog invading what’s normally a super-fast, car-only world. About all I could do was react because it took many seconds just to figure out what was out of place and what I ought to do.
It left me shaken.
For the rest of the drive, the highway seemed like a brutal place to me, a place that shows no mercy to man or animal.
- Keep up with the pace.
- Pay your tolls or go to jail. (Even though the original deal made with the taxpayers was to take down the tolls when it was paid off in 1985. At that point, the money got diverted to other projects like the Big Dig that had very little to do with the folks that used it.)
- Develop a steely exterior.
- Don’t breakdown.
The speed and potential destruction inherent on the highway reminded me of The Emerald Forest, a gorgeous movie I showed in an Anthropology class I taught many moons ago. In this John Boorman film, a pro-development engineer comes to the Amazon Rainforest to build a dam. His young son vanishes while playing at the edge of the forest. After searching for ten years, the engineer finds his son and attempts to rescue him.
The son, though, may not be the one who needs rescuing. And, perhaps, the little dog wasn’t the one that needed to be rescued either. Maybe we need to make our highways more humane places, so if a little dog happens to wander onto it, he will not be risking his life.
Anyone got any ideas for more humane transport? (Beam me up Scottie?)
Thanks, Giulietta
p.s. For your Massachusetts and Rhode Island folks, I’m teaching a personal essay writing class in Hopkinton at The Cultural Arts Alliance in April/May. Please click on personal essay for details.
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I agree with you about making highways safer, but often when I’m travelling or driving, I’ve noticed that the problem lies with the compulsive need for a fast paced life.
Everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere. Here in India, you can pull over to the side of any road you are on (not the best driving practice definitely, but that’s the way it is as of now) , so yeah, although you CAN stop and help a fellow citizen in need, very seldom I notice people stopping to help.
Individuals need to take responsiblity and stand up for what they think needs to be changed. We often undervalue the power of one.
PS : Please ignore the previos comment, got posted midway thru my commenting process. 🙂
Hi Chaitra,
Yes, the highways are a good metaphor for our fast-paced lives. Got to get everywhere fast. Then we get there and boom we need to get to the next place quick. Not much appreciation of where we are right now. Big power in one! All change starts with one. Thx, G.
Our whole culture is rooted in “hurry up because if you don’t get there first, all will be lost.” Blame computers, fax machines, overnight delivery, microwave ovens, or whatever. But the truth is that what the time we save with these conveniences starts off as theoretical leisure time but so often ends up as time to do more of something to put us ahead of someone else.
They don’t call it a rat race for nothing.
My real concern though, at least in terms of speeding through work-related situations, is about how often mistakes are overlooked simply because of the sped-up process. In slower times, an engineering (or other) mistake could have many opportunities to be caught before a road was ever built. Nowadays, those opportunities are reduced simply because less time is taken at each step in the process.
The Big Dig may be an engineering marvel (and does include part of the MassPike, so the continued use of tolls to help pay for it sort of makes sense to me), but for me the real MassPike success story is further west — at the Route 146 intersection. That’s where toxic dump sites were cleaned up and new wetlands were built and then planted with vegetation to provide new habitat. I’ll happily pay my tolls to fund more projects like that.
Hey Margie,
You’re so right about the “hurry up and get there first or all will be lost” syndrome. Mistakes pile up with excessive speed. No one has time to access where s/he is going. It’s in every industry — that and cutting corners when a cut corner always seems to cost more down the road.
Didn’t know about the tolls paying for the clean up the Route 146 intersection toxic dump sites. Good to know. Love to see some kind of toll breakdown as to where the money goes. I’d go for that sort of clean-up as well! Thx, G.
Love what you shared about your heart here, G — besides being a rebel you appear to be a dearly tender-hearted woman (what a combination!!).
The movie you mentioned is going on my Must-watch list – sounds awesome.
Hi Karen,
A rebel that cries or the crybaby rebel! Yeah, that’s me. Never thought of myself that way. Thank you for noticing it. It’s different!
You’ll enjoy the movie. I love all sorts of rainforest/jungle flicks. There’s another cool movie called Fitzcarraldo (1982 with Klaus Kinski and Claudia Cardinale), if you haven’t seen it. Takes place on the Amazon in the Peruvian jungle were Fitz wants to build an Opera House in the middle of nowhere. What’s unforgettable about this movie are the sounds.
thx, G.
A heartrending situation. I can relate to that situation. The question is what can the driver do, especially when it’s Toto? You can’t stop or call Emergency, and you can be pretty certain that sooner or later, Toto is going to get hit.
I agree about the potential destruction of being on a highway – and I personally would rather take more time and use back streets. But freeways and highways were built for practical reasons as well as to get where you’re going fast. Anyone who has lived in a third world country and had to dawdle behind trucks spewing fumes, and that add an extra 30 minutes to an hour to what should be a 20-minute drive, will appreciate a freeway – unless it, too, is clogged.
I have seen both the films you mentioned and now that you reminded us, I’d really like to watch “The Emerald Forest” again.
Hi Penelope,
I hear you about freeways being practical places to get places fast. You’re right about that. And a good point – to get there fast. Everything about us humans seems to entail getting places faster and faster. I wonder sometimes why we need to get wherever we’re going so fast. Does it improve our lives? Not sure. Anyone? Thx, G.