The Real McCoy
Life is like the road
By Brent E. McCoy thereal@adelphia.net

Around 1920, Robert Frost wrote a poem titled "The Road Not Taken." It has always been one of my favorites. In the poem, he compares his choice of what path, or road, to take and he likens that choice to the choices we make in life. While most of us travel the same path, some of us choose the road less taken.

Before we go any further I would like to ask a favor. The editor believes that this publication should not be used to promote poetry, so please don't tell him about this.

People always seem to be saying that life is like this or life is like that. I guess it's only natural but there are a lot of things out there that are just like life, if you choose to look at them that way. Roads are one of them.

The other day I was headed for the baseball field at the high school and as I approached Mountain Meadows Drive, I saw the car in front of me making a right hand turn. This would have been no big deal had the driver not started the turn from the left turn lane. This prompted me to compare Mountain Meadows Drive to the road we travel in life. We think we know what is on both roads and what happens is not always what we expect.

Later, on the way home, I was driving along High Street when it suddenly hit me. No, not another car, but the thought that a lot of the roads here in Moorpark are like life.

Take High Street for example. It's a nice drive and the speeds are slow, kind of like a lazy summer Sunday. It's just a quiet, shady, peaceful little stretch of road that almost forces calm upon you as you pass by the familiar shops just as you might pass a friend on a Sunday morning stroll.

Poindexter has the railroad off to the North and Chaparral School off to the South. There in that little stretch is a bit of our town's past life to one side and a glimpse of the town's future off to the other side.

Tierra Rajada Road can be likened to our constant struggle between the good and evil in each of us. Some times we're forced to poke along at about 20 mph while the folks in both lanes finish dialing. At other times it is amazing just how folks can go along that stretch of road and not fly off into Somis. But, like life, we usually move along together at the posted speed (at least for the last hundred feet before the speed indicator sign).

The drive to Fillmore is a lot like life's journey. As you start out on Moorpark Avenue it's crowded and slow going, but at least you're headed in the right direction. Then there's the turn at Broadway and even though you're no longer going in the direction that you chose, you're getting there faster. Along the way, there are the inevitable peaks and dips that life has to offer but eventually, the dips are behind you and as you turn up Grimes Canyon you are back on the right track. Now there's just one last big hill to climb but, if can get over the top, it's all downhill from there.

All in all, life and roads have a great deal in common. Primarily, both are driven by the need to get ahead of the guy in front of you who is not paying attention to what's going on around him. Just as it is in life, its best if this can be accomplished without doing any damage to the other folks around you.

Let's hope that on Feb. 5, the road less travel by is not the road to the polling place because that will make all of the difference.