Speed Limits

Last night Jason and I left the market with bags of cheese and sausage, making our way home just as dusk was draping the world in eggplant and rose. The vehicle two cars ahead of us slowed and then waited with blinker on to pull into a nook on the side of the road, a woman already leaping from the car with a camera even as they stopped. It was a spectacular sunset and well worth such an endeavor.

It took a moment for traffic to begin moving again and as we trundled along I thought about how many other times I've seen the exact same thing happen here and it hit me - there had been no horns, no slamming of breaks. In fact, since arriving here, I haven't seen a single car tailgate another. There are these traffic circles with nothing but yield signs and we have been from one end of the island to the other and I've only seen turn-taking and gracious hands waving one another along - it's more miraculous the longer I think about it. I mean the vacationers are all gone, these are the year-round residents just living their lives; shopping, getting to work on time, picking the kids up after school...

Two things occurred to me: first, 45mph is the top speed limit on the island and that's only on the main drag, everything else is somewhere between 15 and 25mph. Secondly, with a length of only 14 miles, you are never far from where you're going and these things combined leave plenty of room for noticing beauty, allowing others to make their way, and stopping for deer and snapshots. 

Perhaps life needs a speed limit. In our 70mph plunge through our jobs and marriages and obligations I believe we are missing the point. We increase our technology and the effectiveness of our air-bags and then just pelt along, collision an almost inevitable end. I think I'm  I'm going to try to live my life at 40mph. Fast enough to "get there" but not miss the sunsets....you never see the same one twice.