ABOVE: 31 days of 5-minute free writes
Last week, as part of my participation in the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, I visited the facility where all of our city’s traffic is managed. It was so cool!
As I was standing there listening to the director, I was watching the gigantic monitors on the wall. “What’s that big intersection?” I wondered.
Eventually, the director mentioned which intersection it is and I saw the label for “CCNE/Mahan.” That’s not just any intersection — it’s the one I christened “The Optimism Light” back in 2012 as a birthday present to myself.
(Short version: I was really into FourSquare at the time, a location app. There was an intersection that had been nicknamed “The Punishment Light” for good reason. It’s a pain! It’s down the road from CCNE/Mahan, also on Capital Circle Northeast, which is a main ring road around our city. I decided there needed to be something more uplifting than “punishment,” so I decided to create a check-in called “The Optimism Light.” The O.L. grew — it now has a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I stopped using FourSquare several years ago, so the only thing I do now is check in at the O.L. on Facebook.)
It’s funny that I didn’t recognize it from above. When I’m sitting in my car at that intersection, my perspective is so different. I am waiting for the light to change. I’m (hastily) checking in on Facebook. I’m aware of the cars around me and the heavy traffic (usually). I see the car wash on the southeast corner, the church on the northeast corner, the gas station on the northwest corner and the Walgreens on the southwest corner.
Seeing the aerial view was a reminder that we sometimes need to zoom out and consider the big picture.
