The Grandeur of Man in the Morning Traffic

My morning commute by foot takes me over an interstate highway. This morning the sound of the vehicles whooshing underneath and the simultaneous gentle vibrations of the bridge gave me pause to consider the culmination of thought and action that allows men to travel from home to work miles apart each day. The automobile is a fusion of materials, energy production and electronics that transport individuals at their discretion in the utmost comfort they can afford. I envision the thousands of scientists, engineers and businessmen who studied the properties of the different components, brought them together in a design and tested them and then managed the mass production and marketing of the final result in competition with similar products to yield the wide array of vehicles I witnessed on the road today.

My route to work also lies under a major flight path for the airport, and the distant roar of jet engines lifting airplanes thousands of feet into the air within minutes pricked my ears several times during my walk. I again pondered the study of gravity and aerodynamics, coupled with an understanding of materials, united in a design stringently tested for human beings to travel safely and comfortably at hundreds of miles per hour through a life-threatening, low-temperature, low-pressure environment. Such a marvel of human thought is obtainable to anyone with money via an electronic transfer on the Internet and an automobile trip to the airport. This wonder allows one's personal and business interests to stretch across a globe, rather than within the confines of where one can get by foot.

Not surprisingly, given its lack of relevance to the modern American's personal transportation needs, I passed under a railroad bridge without a single thought as to its significance. Now, in retrospect, the railroad too is a testament to human thought and action, but, because it has lost import as a means of personal transportation, it comes less readily to my mind.

All in all, the human mind and its products in action are grand. I am grateful to all rational men for their thoughtful endeavors, and the concrete results of their labors inspire my continued efforts to reason and to act in sustenance of my life.