Tunnels are necessary things although the scenery is not very good. They can be fun if you don't spend your time lamenting that you cannot see the trees, the sun, of grazing cows on the hill. You can try to make it without taking a breath, sing songs, look at license plates, contemplate the tonnage of the rock or water over your head, notice how many wet drippy places are inside, and, if it's long enough, wait for your tunes or GPS to reconnect. Tunnels can be cool, if you accept them for what they are and sort of make peace with the experience and keep heading toward its end.
The Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson is not my favorite tunnel - while I am in it. But I do like that burst of sunlight just as you are expelled out of the gloom and smog. Into the midtown skyline and energy. I wonder how many travelers, each having their own similar but distinct experience in that Tunnel, have made their way in and out over the years.
Funny, sandhog workers drill, chisel, blast, and dig a way for us. Some lose their lives in the process. A vision is cast, sinews are employed, and the rest of us find a useful path to traverse. We use tunnels because they are there and speed us along in our journeys. Many trust them like yellow brick roads through an uneasy forrest while we hum to ourselves "lions, and tigers and bears, oh, my".
Next time, go a bit slower through your tunnel, physical or otherwise. Embrace the experience, knowing its not strange - well, yes it is if you remember you are driving your car through a mountain or underwater, or through a problem or a season- but be thankful for the useful, transitional thing that it really is.: a way to the light and the shortened distance to where you want or are supposed to be. Into the light.
"Remember those early days after you first saw the light? Those were the hard times! Kicked around in public, targets of every kind of abuse—some days it was you, other days your friends. If some friends went to prison, you stuck by them. If some enemies broke in and seized your goods, you let them go with a smile, knowing they couldn’t touch your real treasure. Nothing they did bothered you, nothing set you back. So don’t throw it all away now. You were sure of yourselves then. It’s still a sure thing! But you need to stick it out, staying with God’s plan so you’ll be there for the promised completion." The Message, Hebrews 10.32ff.
—George Davis
