137. Rules of the Road

137.

Rules of the Road

The road is bordered by flat land and shallow swamp from all the recent rain.

Nothing moves.

Grey heron-like birds and little red and black birds sit on roadside shrubs gazing at me as I pass.

When the sun is high I flop under a scrawny tree reading another of Robin’s books: “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born”, a story about an honest man trying to make a living in Ghana, a country where everything runs on bribery and corruption.

His wife and children suffer and his mother-in-law cries that he is less than a man because he doesn’t know how to “play the game of life”.

There it is again.

Sometimes the rules we are taught to live by seem only fairy tales whereas real life is a game of brute strength, bribery and murder; but then some angel on horseback comes along with the gift of life--a smile and some kindness…

I walk all afternoon. It's very hot. The road seems drier.

...