Singing the traffic jam blues<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Getting trapped in traffic is no different from
\npassing a kidney stone. It's painful but it's something you can't
\nget out of.<\/p>\n
Blast the radio with music by Soundgarden or Nine Inch Nails
\nin a vain effort to psyche you up, but the mellow tune of REM's
\nEverybody Hurts creeps slowly beneath the core of your heart.<\/p>\n
Rain starts to pour. What to do next? You can survey the
\nintense frustration ahead, not to mention the fat guy in the next
\ncar who has his finger halfway up his nose. Is there a meaning to
\nall this, the chaos, mayhem and repetitive emptiness of everyday
\nin your Jakarta life? Is there a way out is the follow-on
\nquestion (the answer is trying moving to a galaxy far, far away,
\nand collect the frequent flier miles).<\/p>\n
Looked at from a different angle, being stuck in traffic can
\nbe quite interesting. Not as interesting as watching an Ingmar
\nBergman movie on a rainy day or staring at Cezanne's apples and
\npears, but still, well, interesting.<\/p>\n
Minds tend to wander far and wide during the agonizing ordeal
\nof traffic jams. Heady flashbacks of idyllic past romances or
\nsexually perverted fantasies to be acted out once home may be
\nconjured up.<\/p>\n
But most drivers in Indonesia seem to swallow the boredom by
\nstaring rigidly at the bumper of the car in front, that same one
\nmocking them for hours as it grudgingly moves an inch every half
\nhour. These are touchy times, when all the frustration and anger
\nbottled up inside threatens to explode, but with no release
\noutlet whatsoever.<\/p>\n
No scientific term may exist for it, but let's call it the
\nTraffic Jam Blues.<\/p>\n
As vehicles nudge along steaming asphalt at tortoise pace, the
\nblues rear their ugly head in gradual stages.<\/p>\n
Denial. The first stage involves telling yourself the traffic
\nis not worse than yesterday's traffic, when in actual fact it's
\nincreased exponentially. You just don't realize because you're
\nbloody well used to a sea of cars by now.<\/p>\n
Anger. The second stage builds up after nearly an hour stuck
\namid looming orange buses that look like huge papayas. The bus
\ndrivers appear to be at a total loss in understanding the terms
\n\"right of way\" or \"other people's lane\". So you begin to swear,
\nverbally bash the car in front of you for being inconsiderate and
\nraise your middle finger in the direction of the enemy.<\/p>\n
Wish. Something each and every individual grasps onto as a
\nrelease after being stuck in heavy traffic for more than an hour.
\nYou stare accusingly at the car in front of you as it commits the
\nultimate sin in the tacitly understood rules of traffic jams by
\ndoing a U-turn in the jammed street. And then you wish for some
\nterrible fate to befall that selfish road hog.<\/p>\n
Silence. Silence is golden, isn't it? But silence is also when
\nyou have no more energy left to express anger and begin to resign
\nyourself to the traffic and your plight. Eventually, come what
\nmay, you will emerge as a brilliant rationalizer. \"So what if I
\nmiss the X-Files this week, I can watch next week's episode\" may
\nseem an mature way to deal with the frustration, until you
\nrealize it is the same mental compromise you made last week, and
\nthe week before.<\/p>\n
After going through the stages of the blues, you reach the
\npoint where you bombard yourself with questions: Why do I have to
\nget so upset about this? I have enough problems of my own! Is
\nthere a point to all this anger? I'm going to have to go through
\nthis again tomorrow, so why bother! Live with it! It's just
\ntraffic. It's not the end of the world.<\/p>\n
Look at the bright side. We love our lives for 20 hours a day,
\nwith only four hours spent inching down the streets of Jakarta.
\nLet's just go through it gracefully without having to bitch about
\nit or lose our tempers.<\/p>\n
Let's just try to understand why there is traffic and what is
\ncausing it (is it the people or the system?). Or why do most
\npeople pick their nose when stuck in traffic (don't these people
\nrealize that it annoys other drivers...hey, I can see you pal!).<\/p>\n
So in short, the world is an intensely interesting place to
\nlive in. And traffic jams are one of the many colorful aspects of
\nliving in this mudball called earth. If there were no traffic
\njams in this world, we wouldn't be able to come up with an excuse
\nfor being late to work or appointments.<\/p>\n
Make the best of it as this is just the rehearsal for a later
\nlife. Remember that your traffic despair is no worse than anybody
\nelse, and follow the great Van Morrison's instructions to \"let's
\nenjoy it while we can\".<\/p>\n
-- Teddy R. Soeriaatmadja<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/singing-the-traffic-jam-blues-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }