SIZE MATTERS

Day 3 of our trip and many things crowd into my mind for comment today.

Firstly my experience of driving a Toyota Yaris. A small car in a big world and driving along the roads next to giant 4x4's and monster trucks is a little daunting particularly when you have no idea where you are going, driving on the wrong side of the road with only two pedals to press instead of three. But, the speed limit is often 55mph or less so what's the point of a big car? I guess for most people it is the distances they drive. The trucks must travel thousands of miles, people are used to long distances and think nothing of it. This morning I chatted to a guy who had travelled 4 hours yesterday from Indianapolis just to go to the beach on the shores of Lake Michegan. I take it for granted that from anywhere in England you are never more than about 120 miles away the sea. We are so small.

Then there is the language. How come we speak the same language but the words have different meaning? For breakfast there was this gooey, messy looking white stuff which I noticed people ladled onto their muffins. When I asked what it was I was told that it was 'gravy'. Didn't look anything like the brown, hot stuff we have! But it tasted okay. Flour, milk and sausage mix, tasted better than it looked!

Then there are 'restrooms' instead of toilets, 'gas' instead of petrol, 'chips' when they are definitely crisps. Then there are pronunciations! Tomato, route (rout) and city (when it is really only a small town).

Size also makes you a little lazy. Watching the morning news about the terrible floods in Pakistan whilst having breakfast, a child asked his dad where Pakistan was. His dad told him that it was near Europe! I suppose it is, but it isn't really, is it?

How easy it is to become lazy, self-sufficient, unaware of others, selfishly only concerned about what is closest to me, what only affects me. I hope that whatever is going on in my life, I will always be aware and affected by what is going on all around me. Actually, that I will go out of my way to get informed and be bothered by what is going on.

A Toyota Yaris is small compared to everything else on the freeways, but I need to keep looking in my mirrors otherwise I too could get lazy and think I am the only car on the road and I am all that matters.