Road Blocks and Detours

Writers Post

Blog Hop #16 Road Blocks

Road blocks come in many forms.  While typically the road block comes with a detour, sometimes the detour can be difficult to follow.  Detours seem the most difficult to follow when it is a new experience.  Weaving one’s way through unfamiliar territory.  Not all road blocks are physical.

For some of us road blocks and detours can bring on panic attacks.  Some of the panic attacks are small inconveniences while others are epic grand mal!  For those of us from rural America, aka: Kalkaska, a detour in Chicago is a really big deal. 

A detour in Chicago, without a co-pilot, in the middle of a hot summer in 1975.  Slowing down to try to see a map, read the road signs, and navigate the six lane roads, my panic really set in when a taxi driver pulled up and screamed obscenities at me.  I was most definitely lost! I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of cars crammed into a little space.  I was embarrassed for the turmoil I seemed to be creating on the streets of Chicago. I had heard rumors of the violence that could ensue from something as simple as driver ignorance. The weaving, jockeying, horns honking cacophony had my head spinning.  I began to retreat into myself, my own little hideaway I knew so well. Then that same taxi driver flipped me the finger and called me a dumb blonde.

I’m Scotch and Irish….grew up surrounded by little red-headed females.  Do not call me a dumb blonde. It can make my hair turn red! My head flew up, my driver’s side window was already down, out of my mouth spewed words I didn’t know I knew! I threw my blinker on. Blinkers were generally turned on in the middle of a lane change on those streets.  At that point it didn’t matter that I was lost, the lane I was in was ending so I had to move anyhow. I hollered to the driver that I was changing lanes in front of him and if he didn’t let me in I was going to get out of my dark green Plymouth Duster and kick his #%$#&^%$^%....needless to say the taxi driver acknowledged my new found determination and allowed my lane change in front of his vehicle. Just as the Grinch’s heart grew, my determination grew. It must have nearly been a physical transformation as I am pretty certain I got a nod and a wink from that taxi driver.

That one incident changed my life.  That one road block/detour incident altered my personal mode of addressing the mental and emotional road blocks I erect for myself.  I acknowledge the lesson that incident taught me each time I am in a similar emotional situation.  Rather than cow to the fear and panic of the unknown, I lift my head up and step into the situation.  Not all road blocks are physical. 

Leigh