The Road Less Travelled

Robert Frost, in his famous poem 'The Road Not Taken' writes about how when confronted with two paths and how after taking the route less traveled, he is happier for having gone a different way. There are so many interpretations of the meaning of this poem that it will undoubtedly continue to be interpreted in the generations to come. However, the theory I like is that Robert Frost was making a commentary on men in general. What makes me say that? Well... let me explain.

Traffic in Northern Virginia is a nightmare. The region has virtually exploded and where Dulles Airport was once considered the end of civilization, it is now the center of it for the area. As such, the roads are still designed to sustain much less by way of traffic and vehicles. Gridlock is the order of the day... any day... and it is next to impossible to drive around the area without running into some traffic or the other. Some people prefer to sit in traffic and get there when they get there. Me? I'm a mobile person. I like to move. I love to drive and I love the feeling of rolling down the road. One day I ended up stuck in traffic We hadn't moved in ten minutes and I still had twenty miles to go. Suddenly I saw a side street with a familiar sounding name, I decided to take the side road and see where my new road would take me. After all, you can only stare at a green Neon with the license plate, "I STNK" for so long!

Being a guy, I didn't bother to worry about knowing where this road went or whether it was faster. I had this inherent desire to drive down that road to see where it would take me and what new things I could discover. In the tamed wilds of suburbia it's not necessarily as big an adventure but you never know what you'll get down that road. It was my own 'box of chocolates' a la Forrest Gump. So I ducked down the side road, passing houses, and schools. Strip malls that I never knew existed came and went. The winding roads were built for me as I hugged the curves in my Boxster. The twists and turns in the road seemed to indicate that I was moving in a roughly parallel course to my previous, traffic jammed route. I was ecstatic. My discovery of this road was to be lifesaver. Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light. A traffic light. Looks like I was back to a main thoroughfare. I decided to see where I was.

Perfect! It was the road which I had been on previously. Let's see how much farther down the road I had travelled by taking the road less travelled. Suddenly I see it, the green Neon. I've only gone a mile or two farther. My road less travelled actually loops out of the way and ends up only a mile farther down the main road. No wonder it was less travelled. Had I bothered to refer to a map or ask the locals for direction I could have saved myself a trip. But taking that path, I was afforded a bit of freedom for a brief time. I may have still been stuck in traffic, but at least now I'll know what lies down the road less travelled.