The Signs are Everywhere

In our little neighborhood we are celebrating the addition of a single stop sign.

For years now, crossing Fountain Avenue at Cherokee in Hollywood has been a source of wonder (as in, I wonder if we’re going to make it across?) and an adventure in trust (Does that driver see us?  Will they stop?).  The design of our frequent neighborhood walks has been patterned on the level of risk we have been willing to take, with optional routes considered taking into account factors like the time of day, the day of the week, and how much we happen to be enjoying life at the moment.

But no more!  Not long ago I was yet again contemplating the risk factors of a Fountain crossing when I was delighted to see that contemplation was no longer necessary.  The intersection that had so controlled us for decades was now under control, sporting a handy-dandy stop sign (a four-way, to boot!).  

Which got me thinking...

It’s just a stop sign, but without it, we’ve had to plan our lives differently than we do now.  We no longer need to wonder about our safety in the same way (True, just because there’s a sign there doesn’t mean they will stop for it!).  Our plans have changed.  The pattern of our lives has, even if only in a small way, changed.

There are, of course, bigger signs on the horizon.  The signs of the times have troubled many of us, and we are not alone in wondering if the pattern of life as we know it will be forever changed—and certainly not for the better.  Some of us may have read earlier signs and interpreted them to mean that the arc of history was indeed bending toward justice—but now we’re starting to wonder.  Are we at a dead end?

And there’s the actual climate, not just the political one.  Heat, fires, floods, droughts, oh my!  Have the signs been there all along...that our rampant consumption and self-centered and wasteful destruction would one day come crashing home and leave the whole biome crippled forever?  What new patterns of behavior are we willing to walk to help heal the planet?  What can each of us, and all of us, do?  

Maybe start by reading the signs.

When people are marching because they truly believe that they are superior to, or threatened by people who look a little different or pray a little differently or celebrate a different culture, that’s a sign.

When so much wealth is so concentrated in the hands of so few that it pushes people out of affordable housing and doesn’t provide them the support they need to live—when more and more people are not even a paycheck away from destitution, that’s a sign.

When we are stepping over human beings on the sidewalk without thinking (except maybe to pinch our noses and make that judgmental little “Tsk” noise we make), but get truly angry when the health department tells us that Foo Foo the Poodle shouldn’t have free reign in Trader Joe’s, that’s a sign.

When ice caps are melting and ash is falling from the skies, that’s a sign.

Stop.

Think.

Maybe it’s time for a re-design, based on an altogether new pattern for your life.