WANDER, LUV

I made the left turn onto Crown Valley Parkway. The San Diego freeway entrance was two tenths of a mile ahead. I was in the correct right lane. I get onto the freeway and immediately reach for the cellphone to put in HOME for directions.  The voice in my head, which talks to me more often that I would like it to, asked, what the hell are you doing?  You just came down an hour ago and you don’t know your way back on one freeway with one exit? It stopped me dead in my proverbial tracks, although I kept my foot firmly on the gas, so as not to hit the guy behind me. What was I doing? What is this constant need to know our GPS position? Did I think they magically created some new freeway interchange in the hour I spent at this Mission Viejo mall? Why do we need to know exactly how much traffic there is in front of us? Will it make us arrive any faster? It’s not like I listen to the phone anyway, when it tells me to get off and take an alternate route. I figure they told everyone else the same thing, so I just wait till all the other cars heed the instructions and then it’s smooth sailing for me.  

And who exactly came up with the idea to keep showing us slower routes on the MAPS. Is it the 21^st Century need for a constant pat on the back? Do we always need to be reminded that we are doing a good job by being on the fastest route, which the damn thing selected for us to begin with? Who cares if there is a slower way to go, and even worse, who would take it? Then there is the new annoying GPS habit of telling us there is an accident up ahead, followed by a pop up asking if the accident is still there or cleared. If stupid SIRI knew there was an accident, why can’t she just tell us if it’s gone or not? When I get this message, I just tap the It’s still there button, figuring that should take some people off my road. Are those large green signs telling us that the 405 freeway is on the right and the 5 freeway is on the left not enough to point the way? Do we really need our phones to tell us the sign is coming up? Are we no longer able to just navigate for ourselves with only our eyes and brains? Do we really need to know where we are at all times and where we are going? Why can’t we just let fate decide every now and then?

Using a GPS of any type has now become the number one cause of accidents in California, surpassing both texting and DUIs.  So according to California, it is now statistically safer to have another beer than it is to fiddle with your MAPS. I know this, because the not so Superior Los Angeles Court let me take traffic school twice in two months and then added a point to my DMV record anyway, because you are only allowed traffic school once in 18 months. When my son had to do traffic school, Google and I helped him with the final exam.  Months later, a social media post by a young friend asked if anyone would take his traffic school for good pay. Well, I couldn’t resist raising my hand. I was pretty sure sitting in a front of a computer for eight hours would do nothing to deter his speeding and I couldn’t see him paying some random stranger with sketchy traffic school acumen. Since I was offering my services for free, I got the job.  I was also pretty sure that he and my kid already knew that speeding is not a great thing to do, especially if you get caught. Being an expert now at the traffic rules no one follows, I knocked the course out in less than two hours. I figured it really isn’t my responsibility to teach someone else’s offspring personal responsibility. I have enough to do teaching my own adult kids that.  Plus, I’m Italian, I’d rather collect markers and chits than Boy Scout merit badges and it’s no secret personal responsibility disappeared in the 20^th century. 

We desperately need to learn to drive again without staring at a screen every five minutes to watch that insidious countdown of miles and minutes before we are there yet. We need to throw caution and our cell phones to the wind and savor the journey, not obsess over the arrival at our destinations.  We need to change our WAYZ and take a look at the scenery around us.  We do not need to know where we are or where we are going every single minute. Sometimes, we just need to wonder and wander, luv.