U-Turns

My two friends, Jess and Elena, thought I was in a "funk" yesterday evening so they took me out to a Drag Show and the Pride kick off event at Town in DC. I had to be drug there at first but it was well worth the exhaustion today.

On the way to Town we passed by a church in South East DC off Route 5 that had a sign in front that said, "Don't worry, God allows U-Turns." My first thought was....why in the world would you ever advocate U-Turns?! If we are all making U-Turns then we will end up like New Jersey where you cannot make a left hand. In order to go Left in NJ you go Right into a jug handle (aka U-Turn) so you can re-enter the intersection and finally go where you wanted to go which is now right in front of you (I know confusing right! You also are not allowed to pump your own gas in Jersey). Don't get me wrong I REALLY love jug handles...there is even picture evidence of this on Facebook....and I love New Jersey. But really...sometimes wouldn't it just be easier to make the left hand turn?

Furthermore, if you have already been down that road why would you ever want to revisit it? You have seen all the sights on that road, stopped at all the restaurants, met the people who live down that road. And clearly there is a reason why you didn't park on that road. You kept driving for a reason right?

I pointed this out to Jess and Elena who gave me a different view on U-Turns (keep in mind Jess is from NJ...so she may be biased....) I said that I would never want to make a U-Turn because the way I see U-Turns are a form of back tracking. I would rather keep moving straight. Turning Left and Right, merging, taking new roads and never using my rearview mirror. I didn't want to go back to where I have already driven through. Jess and Elena, however, really liked the idea of U-Turns because what if you missed something? What if you really needed to get to a house that was on the opposite side of the freeway that you couldn't get to before? What if you realized that you made a wrong turn and you REALLY did need to back track?

One of my biggest problems is reflecting on past events and growing and building upon them. Maybe I could benefit from a few U-Turns every now and then. After all if you do take a U-Turn you aren't driving on the exact same road. You are on the other side of a road you used to be on. And maybe that is where you need to be.