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Surfboard Blocking the Carpool Lane
The situational irony of a morning commute
The ritual of watching your morning news station allows for an opportunity to catch up with current events. My usual morning habit after waking up is to make tea and switch on the television to see the KTLA Channel 5 morning news. On this particular gray June day, the news would provide more than just updates, it would give me material to write about on Medium.
Since Los Angeles is a megacity of 3.8 million people, ear catching news reports rain down from the sky like sunbeams. There is a limited amount of time on a news show to expand on a myriad of impactful events taking place over the past 24 hours. It is a big task to decide which reports make it to the teleprompter.
The segment of the morning news that made me take special notice was the traffic report. The traffic reporter had a big smile on his face while announcing to the citizens of Los Angeles to be aware of a surfboard blocking the carpool lane on the 405 North heading toward Fountain Valley.
The surfboard incidence was oddly funny and serious at the same time.
Living in the fast lane is part of being an urbanite. The rocket speed of change requires the ability to alter our directions physically and emotionally. Thus, the symbolic, incongruous nature…
