In reply to Salisbury Road Works
To the Editor,
I write in response to the letter about the Salisbury road works. It is truly delightful, if one enjoys that sort of thing, to watch the city’s main route metamorphose, and yet, maddening to think that this metamorphosis bears an uncanny resemblance to a pothole-filled obstacle course.
Allow me to say that I, too, find a peculiar sense of peace in the chaos of roadworks, though I must confess to finding it equally jarring, occasionally enraging, and possibly exhilarating.
I find myself questioning whether this transformation is meant to improve the roads or whether it’s actually an elaborate existential performance piece. Are we not all, in a way, that one errant traffic cone, out of place, endlessly nudged along?
And let us not overlook the workers! They, too, are marvels in their own right, industriously charting the mysteries of the Salisbury underworld — one patch of tarmac at a time.
Their dedication to holding clipboards and gazing in contemplation is unparalleled, and we can only hope to understand even half of what they are thinking. Or maybe none of it, which is actually more in line with the spirit of these road works.
The writer mentions the soothing quality of delays. Here I wholeheartedly disagree, except where I find myself in perfect agreement.
I have often come to realise, somewhere between the 47th and 48th minute of waiting, that I am no longer waiting at all, but merely existing, somewhere between action and inaction, between Salisbury and... well, Salisbury, technically.
Perhaps these works are less about the road and more about the journey — a journey back and forth over the same stretch, forever. Or maybe they’re just road works.
Yours in continued bewilderment,
A Fellow Traveler