The Road More Traveled

I attended a meeting earlier this month to hear more about the next phase of four-lane highway construction taking place near our community.  It's taken several years, but the old two-lane state highway is becoming a four-lane expressway with many a roundabout to help you get off to slower-paced travel on two-lane roads and city streets.  The next phase of development will go past the property where I grew up and cut across miles of private land, changing the way we live with and traverse our countryside.  The meeting room was packed with interested and concerned parties who listened to the various speakers explaining the construction route and timeline.  I have lived in this community all of my life, save time away for college and brief stints in Colorado and Madison.  What happens in this community and affects the people who live here resonates deep inside of me.  Once the new highway construction is all done, we will adjust and probably forget what it had been like before the four-lane wonder, but that evening, the road more traveled had some concerned citizens sitting straight in their chairs, listening intently to the effects of change on our lives.