Monday, June 13, 2005

On The Bridge I Was Reminded...

After I dropped my son off at his grandmother's house this morning I took a route to work that had me go over a bridge. It's in an area called the Cutoff, in New Orleans. The bridge isn't longer than a mile and it goes up pretty high; it's like a hump in the middle of dull and monotonous flatness. When I got to the very top of the hump I could see almost all of the Metro-New Orleans area. I saw the Westbank (the west side of the Mississippi Bridge) covered by trees. Houses were concealed by a roof of green shrubbery but an occasional home was visible. To my right in the far distance an oil refinery's chimney stacks exhaled smoke or steem, I couldn't tell which. It looked like a giant mechanical metropolis. Not far from the refinery I got a glimpse of the Mississippi as it flowed in it's winding passageway that it has carved over the centuries. Ahead, the horizon was interrupted by the Downtown skyscrapers. They stood tall and bunched up. Our city looked so small in comparison to other well known cities but so large in its isolation. Just before the view of the city I could see the steel structures that connect the west and east banks. These twin bridges' design has them come to a peak; some days when the fog has just the right amount of density, the bridges almost look like the mountains that cut the skies of the Great Northwest. It was quite a sight.

What I saw at the top of the bridge was a glimpse that lasted only a few seconds, but in those few seconds I was in awe at the sight, the entire sight, and the feeling that I got from that glimpse has lasted up until now, hours later.

The feeling? Let me tell you, it's a feeling that I've only had when I've been single and free... free of drama. For a brief time, for just a few seconds I remembered what it was like to have no drama in my life. I remembered how it feels when I feel like everything in my life is exactly where it's supposed to be. I'm talking work, career, money, my social life, my future... everything. I felt free as a bird; this must be what it's like to fly and have nothing hold you down, I mean NOTHING. It's a feeling I've only had when I'm single with no major emotional attachments. Why when I'm single?

Because when I'm single, I can alter things in my life. Life is still just a map that I don't have to reconfigure for anyone else, just me. It's my map and only mine... and having the freedom to change the route, or change the destination is like breathing the freshest air and drinking the freshest water. Nothing can stop me, not even my feelings for anyone.

On top of the bridge I was reminded of what it was like to hold that map, my map... and for those few seconds it felt so good to feel free again.

[ TheSaga | 7:50 AM | ]