October 14, 2015

  • The Road to 65, Mile 319: Conquistador

    October 12, 2015, Chino Valley-

    A few thoughts about the day, as we might look at it.

    The deer trails, drawing the interest of the hunters,

    became the Kinship Trails, drawing the interest of the merchants,

    the soldiers and the monks.

    The Conquistador Trails, drawing the interest of the pioneers,

    the entrepreneurs and the downtrodden,

    became the railroads and macadam highways, drawing the

    interest of the Lords of Commerce and the satisfied multitudes.

    The Interstate Highways, drawing the interest of the masses,

    fleeing oppression, become

    closed, behind walls and fences.

Comments (7)

  • So much the price of progress but life goes on and we adapt. Don't we?

  • The mention of various roads instantly brings to mind Robert Frost's (1920)famous poem "Mountain Pass". I hope you don't mind if I share it here. I have always liked it. I like reading your words and thoughts too. Wikipedia quotes as saying "His [Frost] work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and philosophical themes." I think you often do the same.

    TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
    And sorry I could not travel both
    And be one traveler, long I stood
    And looked down one as far as I could
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;

    Then took the other, as just as fair,
    And having perhaps the better claim,
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
    Though as for that the passing there
    Had worn them really about the same,

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

  • correction, (and my apologies): the title of the aforementioned poem is "The Road Not Taken", from the collection of poems entitled "Mountain Pass".

  • A very nice contemplation of roads - much truth and a touch of sadness that the intimacy of the footpath has been replaced by the sequestered highway!

  • @mcbery: We can also mitigate the change that occurs.

  • @Crystalinne: "The Road Not Taken" is one of my favourite poems. I wonder, sometimes, how it would have been, had I followed a different path.

  • @murisopsis: The path which provides for anonymity is a Hobson's choice.

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