Barrels and Cones

If you go anywhere in Augusta right now, you're bound to see orange barrels and cones alongside of whatever roads or thoroughfares you take to get where you're going. The DOT has decided to work on just about every road (including a huge expansion of I-20 that's going to give Augusta its very own spaghetti junction - - - if you aren't familiar with that, I guess it's an Atlanta thing because they have one everybody knows about), traffic lights are being added left and right, lanes are being widened and narrowed, opened and closed on a daily basis, and literally every store I shop in is under renovation. Cones and barrels abound. In the name of progress, we're all required to deal with the aggravation and eyesore that it all creates. Sometimes they even put up a sign: "Pardon our mess while we update our store for you." This, somehow, makes it okay, and having been warned that we are going to find a mess, it's excusable.

I was thinking about it, though, and - as I often do - was able to find a spiritual application for that. Yes, even orange construction barrels can be used for a spiritual lesson.

The cones and barrels are there for what purpose? To let all of us know that the road is under construction - that it's a work in progress. It's not finished, and until it is, there is some degree of danger. Bumps, broken places..... The hideous orange things are there to let us know that it's not done. There's more work to be done before it's as good as it can be.

Here's my thought: we should all be required to walk around with barrels or cones. Not literally, of course, but something along those lines would be nice. I think there was a movie a few years ago where a character said that everyone should be required to wear a sign around their necks, so others they meet will know what they're getting when they meet them. This is what I'm proposing with the cones and barrels idea. We should all have to wear something that reminds the people that we meet that we are not finished. We're a work in progress. There's more work to be done on us - some of us (like me) may require a LOT more work - and until that work is done, there is the danger of bumps and breaks and rough spots. Having seen a cone or barrel, others would remember that what they are about to encounter is not perfect, and that they should not expect perfection.....not yet, anyway. Someday, yes. But not today.

I think, too, that those cones would remind ourselves that we're not quite as put together as we sometimes think we are. If we had to get up every morning and put on a huge orange cone, it would be hard to forget that we're under construction. My cross necklace is like that - when I put it on, it's easier to remember that I'm not finished. I'm a work in progress.

Anyhow, that's my thought. It's just an idea.