When I bothered to notice, I usually found that noise and vibration slightly annoying...until that trip. We hit the concrete, and my son started humming and thup-thupping along with it. Finally, he turned to me and said, "Dad, it's probably a lot of hard work to make a road, so isn't it cool that they built music into it, too?"
Now, we know that the singing and bumping of the highway against my tires is more a symptom of structure and friction than any intentional built-in "song," but my son's honest question sent a shiver through me, and has changed my experience of that stretch of road. As we turned onto Highway 16, with all the ramp and bridgework, we saw several dozen workers wearing their reflective oranges with machines, tools, and trucks.
Setting aside all cynical comments, I am grateful for hard-working men and women, in service, construction, education, in the home, or offices. Thank you, especially when it's more than getting a paycheck, but about doing your best, or adding your song to whatever you do, lifting up the people with whom or for whom you work.
I take that exit almost every work day. After that trip with my son, instead of being irritated by the vibration, I find myself singing arrhythmically, "hmmm thup-thup, hmmm thup-thup, hmmm thup-thup, hmmm." It brings a grin to each morning which shapes much, if not the rest, of my day!
