Painted Lines

Ah, the power of paint.

Often as I am driving I marvel at the power of paint, and our faith in painted lines.

We literally place our lives in the trust of painted lines on our roads every day.

Two vehicles hurtling towards each other on a two lane highway at 50 miles per hour, the only thing between them is an arm's length of air and a line or two of dried yellow paint on the pavement- sometimes not even a solid line! And almost never will those vehicles touch.

Or lanes on a freeway- I am more careful parking in my garage than driving on the freeway- and how much more dangerous is the freeway! It's not like I have lines painted on the floor of my garage, either.

It's actually quite astonishing. Imagine explaining this concept to an ancient human:

'Oh don't worry. It's perfectly safe. See the painted line!'

Those who might question their faith in humankind should really consider this, as it is not the paint that protects us but the symbolism that each driver (hopefully, and most of the time, they do) recognizes and heeds, and our faith that the other driver's level of self-preservation is sufficient to protect ourselves from disaster and death thousands and thousands of times.