Roadsides

One is then free to discover opportunities to which we usually only pay a distant glance. Because they demand an openness that the need to get from one point to another denies them, these encounters reveal a facet of existence and experience rejected by our way of being in the world.

What is their importance? From an accounting or time-wasting perspective, none, and all the better if they are outside our intellectual grasp. But are we wired that way? Those who perceive no value in these trifles are probably the same ones cultivating encounters around the coffee machine. The phenomenon has not escaped the attention of the humanities. The mere cold constraint is unbearable to us, and its insistent pressure is a major factor in fueling the various pathologies that mark our profound imbalances.

The roadsides reveal what the eye does not see, or no longer sees. They invite us to be different, like when, after a Jacques Tati film screening, the viewer begins to notice previously overlooked incongruities in the street. They reactivate a devalued dimension inherent in us and, by doing so, offer us the opportunity to be better ourselves. They are the epiphany of the prospect of cultural renewal.