Life in the carpool

I remember a time I worked at Marrickville and journeyed daily from the Eastern suburbs. The carpool would do the rounds past the beaches, rolling waves and parks and when everyone was on board we would make our way west along Gardener’s Road. This was in the days before air conditioning was common so we rode together with the windows down. Each morning as we approached Botany Road the call would go out. “Windows up!” It was a well-rehearsed scenario and everyone complied. You see, just a few metres up the road was the Meadow Lee margarine factory and when you passed the factory the stink was such that having passed just once with the windows open you would not do it again.

When I reflect on that memory I can’t help thinking that life’s journey is a bit like that trip our carpool took each morning. We meet and greet friends, enjoy the good times and hang around together, journey together and cooperate together, if we don’t cooperate, every now and again we have to put up with the stink.

. . . and sometimes, while travelling through life with even your closest friends, you can’t wind the windows quick enough.