Headlights

I have been at my parents' house in Moscow, Pennsylvania for the past week. I'm home for the Croom-daddy wedding. Today Lindsay will leave behind her single ways and become Mrs. Croom-daddy. In the week between the bachelor party and the wedding I have had plenty of chances to spend time with family and friends. Sometimes we just talk, but often we eat and drink while we catch up.

As I drive around NEPA, I am reminded of the skills that I learned while growing up in a rural area that I don't use very often in Milwaukee. For example, scanning the upcoming road for deer and looking at other drivers so that I can wave if I know them. Another important set of rules that I almost forgot about is the use of high beams instead of the normal head lights when I'm on dark roads.

The thing about driving on back roads is that you need to use the high beams as much as possible. If you just use your normal head lights, you'll easily be over-riding them and by the time that you see a deer or other obstruction you will already have hit because you didn't have enough distance to stop. However, you can't leave your high beams on all of the time because then you'll blind the other drivers. Of course, some people forget, so you just have to flash them once and then they'll realize their mistake.

On windy roads, I like how I can tell when a car is approaching by looking at the reflection of its lights on the telephone wires. I like being able to tell at what point he turned off his high beams. It's also an interesting situation when I approach another car on a long stretch of flat road. This is because we know that we don't have to turn off the high beams as soon as we see each other - there are still several hills between us. However, at what point does our own vision need to be held back because it's hindering someone else's? It's a question that goes so much farther beyond Rts. 307 and 435. It's a question for life. How much do we sacrifice for other people?

How much do we sacrifice when we don't know the other people - and we never will meet the other people. They're traveling in the opposite direction at 65 m.p.h. and all we have to know each other is the shape of our headlights. But we both made simple changes to help the other person's journey.