Here in Maryland, we have this thing called the Beltway. Well, it’s not just Maryland. It’s Virginia too. It’s basically one long road that goes in a circle around Washington DC. It’s main purpose is to get commuters around the city and between its suburbs without actually having to go through the city. It also serves to help out-of-staters get thoroughly lost.
The Beltway is one of those roads with a weirdly low speed limit which common understanding holds that it should be dramatically broken at pretty much all times. At any given time, cars will be flying around the Beltway going between 80 and 90 miles per hour (keeping in mind, this is a 55mph road).
During rush hour, things only get more intense.
Well, every once in a while, you’ll come across a pace car. Maybe it’s an elderly person. Maybe its a new driver. Maybe it’s an out-of-stater who hasn’t learned to drive yet. But regardless of who they are, they’re always the same driver. They’re the folks who sit in the left lane, holding up traffic. They’re not necessarily going slower than traffic, they’re keeping up perfectly, causing hugely annoying flow problems.
Because they’re not going slower or faster, no one can pass them. So right in front of you might be a Subaru and right next to them is a Jeep and they’re both going the same freakin’ speed! You’ll see a long line of cars backed up behind them just hoping they notice how annoying they’re being. Finally someone gets anxious and scoots all the way to the right lane and passes that way. The rest will soon follow.
In all the universe of highway driving this has to be the most annoying. More annoying than the bikers who fly by between lanes. More annoying than someone driving too slow. More annoying than a whole cluster of cars quickly slowing down for a speed trap that they had plenty of time to anticipate. This takes the cake.
Well, tonight I came across the mother of all pace car experiences. A triple pace car. That’s right, three pace cars all lined up together. Absolutely no way by. I had no choice but to sit there fuming about their totally annoying driving habits.
It wasn’t long before my obstacles became a kind of nemesis in my mind. My mission emerged… I had to get passed them. If nothing else, simple for the principle. Frankly, it was weird. Every lane shift and change they made, I began to interpret as if they were actually coordinating with each other to be the worlds most annoying set of motorists. Attempt after attempt to pass them were continually thwarted. It seemed almost calculated.
I was so annoyed I actually thought of giving one of the cars the finger. I know, it was weird trip from reality.
But in the midst of my epic encounter, I started thinking about Ecclesiastes. I’m in Ecclesiastes now and Solomon’s sentiment about the vanity of life is potent on my mind. But here it was, staring me in the face. I was fighting these cars for preeminence on the road, but for what? To get to my exit 200 feet before they did?
It was with these thoughts that I calmed down and stopped paying attention to them.
All life begins the same, with birth. All life ends the same, with death. No man has power of either and all are subject to both. Nothing I achieve here will matter then, so why chase with such vehemence, such vanities? All that matters is the grace of God and how it is stewarded.
I’m quite confident that it’s not in fighting the pace car.
October 9th, 2008 at 6:14 am
We always called this phenomenon “the moving road block.”