As I alluded to in my last post, about two months ago, on an impulse mainly, I posted my information up on Carpoolworld.com and got a couple of replies pretty much immediately. One of the potential rides left at six AM every morning and I'd be sharing the ride with three other people that worked in my general area. Six AM initially seemed like an UnGodly hour to leave for work, given that I'd been leaving at nine or nine-thirty up until then and I debated whether I should join up or not with Marianne. But, after figuring out how much money I would save on Gas ,(lots!) and car maintenance coupled with the fact that I actually wouldn't even be required to drive (the carpool organizer does all the driving and always uses his car) we agreed that I should try it.
Like I said, joining was an impulse, and I'd never seriously considered carpooling before, even though I knew it was the 'right thing' to do from a environmental stand point. I always assumed that it would require that I listen to really bad music that I hated every morning, or engage in conversations about subjects that didn't interest me, but would have to participate for the sake of politeness. I was an idiot, but these were the main things that stopped me from giving it any serious consideration.
So, flash forward two months, and I'm a total carpooling convert, and can't believe I let preconceived notions and just plain ignorance stop me from even considering some that has brought me so many benefits. First being; I don't have to drive any more! I have two hours every day when I can do pretty anything that I want (within reason) I can just stare out the window at the passing landscape, appreciate the forms of the various species of trees, admire cloud patterns and the way the pink light of morning creates complements the rich blue shadows in the snow, look at people in passing cars eating with a bowl in one hand an a fork in another (and I guess some other limb on the steering wheel), sleep (only when I'm really tired), but best of all, I now have time to READ.
There was once a point in my life, back in my twenties, when I had the time and inclination to finish several books a month. I think that it says a lot about the current phase of my life that when I tried to think of the last two novels that I'd read the only two that I could think of The Corrections By Jonathan Franzen and The Black Tower by P.D. James. The telling thing is that when I though about it harder I realised that both were books on tape that I'd listened to in the car on the way to work . Sure, I made a big effort and got throught the majority of a really good non-fiction work last spring, Richard Bentall's Madness Explained: Psychosis and Human Nature, and I'd made valiant efforts to get through other books before that, but since I started focusing more on making more money in the early part of the millenium, I've been unable to to get more than two-thirds of the way through any of them. It's like, the effort of will to get that far, coupled with the excitement of being able to potentially move on to something new, took the pleasure out of what I was reading and I aborted.
Reading had receded so much in my life that it took me a few weeks to realize that's what I could be doing during the hour long commute each way. It was almost like I felt ashamed that I had stopped reading, and not wanting to feel ashamed, had just pushed it out of my head. At first I pulled the books out of my bag somewhat sheepishily, aftraid my fellow carpoolers might think that I was snubbing conversation, and I felt the need to justify myself "I've got to read this because it's due back at the library next week."(True, and it couldn't be renewed. Like the great librarian in the sky was DARING me to finish a book) But after the immense enjoyment I was getting out of the story, coupled with mounting satisfaction of getting a quarter of the way through a book in the first couple of days, half way through in the first week, to three-quarters in a week and half, to (!!!)completetion at the end of the second week made me throw all sheepishness out the window. I've since made my way through a second book, am making headway on a third and am taken great pains to decide whether I should try to get through the masses of unread books on my shelves, or pick something new (I'll probably end up doing a change up, one book I had already, one book that's new).
I'm planning on attempting to post reviews (note the lack of committtment) for at least some (under promise, over-deliver) of the books I've been reading. I'll get the first one, Beyond Black, by Hillary Mantel, posted soon (remember, soon is a relative term).
