on the m5
on the m5
things I read and thought about in traffic and beyond
I almost lost my mind last weekend.
Driving down to Devon for a wedding, I became embroiled in an almighty queue on the M5 motorway inspired by a lorry fire. I sat alone in my car, stationary on the motorway for hours, fortunate to have my Kindle, a bottle of water and some sweets left over in the glove compartment from a previous road trip. Without the reading material in particular, I would have been beside myself.
Also fortunately, the queue was truly stationary for most of my participation in it, enabling me to meander to the hard shoulder to relieve myself. Hours later, when the queue began to inch forward in fits and starts, a quick dash to the central reservation was the only option and it was fascinating to see how British queuing protocol respected that someone was performing bodily functions and refused to cut in in front of me as the cars in front opened up a decent-sized gap. If nothing else, we are united in a few common understandings, even in extreme circumstances.
I have been stuck on a motorway before but never quite like this, for this long. There’s something fascinating about being somewhere so desolate, so unwelcoming to being a human on foot, particularly when cars are whizzing past on the other side and you get a true sense of their speed.
All this to say, I’ve been very sociable these past few days but I’ve also had plenty of thinking time. Here are a few ways I’ve occupied my mind, including books, audiobooks, songs and nature’s grandeur.