Member-only story
There’s A Connection There
It’s up to you to find it
The word apophenia is one of my favorites. Originally coined to describe moments of lucidity in patients with schizophrenia, it has come to mean the human tendency to draw connections between things, even when such connections don’t exist organically. This story is apophenia-adjacent.
The man I picked up yesterday didn’t have a mask on when I pulled into the parking lot, but I saw him reach in his pocket when he saw me. Once I saw him put it on, I unlocked the doors and welcomed him. I was picking him up from a truck rental lot, and when I confirmed his destination with him, I learned that we would be going to Vancouver, WA, from North Portland, OR. In rush hour.
From both of the metropolitan areas I’ve lived in, I’ve learned that I can pretty much always count on bottle-necking into the city at the beginning of the day and bottle-necking out of the city at the end of the day. Portland is no different, and while Vancouver has its own ambitions of becoming a larger city someday, empirically, it’s still a suburb to Portland.
“I’ll have you there in just 25 minutes. One can’t help but admire the optimism of the Uber Maps, am I right?”
“Oh, I know it — I came in off the Marine Drive exit, and traffic was already backed up there!”
“It seems the Vancouver traffic starts earlier and earlier anymore.”
“Yup.”
