Balance...

Balance is a given in life. Good and Evil. Rain and Drought. Going faster and Slowing down. Heating up and Cooling down. Feeling happy and then feeling sad. Getting paid at the end of the month and then reaching the fourth day of the month and having VERY little left of the salary...

This issue of balance has been brouhgt to the fore in my life, because I have been experiencing it first-hand in the following specific ways lately...

For the last year or two we have been subjected to severe travel discomfort. There have been continuous road works taking place on the highways between Pretoria and Johannesburg. If it wasn't construction for the Gautrain project that was disrupting the flow of traffic, it was the Gautenf Traffic Improvement Project. Both of these are aimed at alleviating the congestion on our roads in the long run.

Add to this the fact that we were being "threatened" by disruptions due to the staging of the World Cup Soccer Tournament in various cities around South Africa and you definitely see the "bad" part of this balancing act.

The Organisers and Government got together and decided that they would close schools for the entire duration of the World Cup! On the one hand a great idea, because parents wouldn't have to worry about taking their kids to school during this time. On the other hand a bad idea, because what do parents do with their kids at home for more than 6 weeks!

A day or two before the Tournament started, the SA National Road Agency Ltd decided that they would suspend ALL road works for the duration of the World Cup. Suddenly the roads were open. There were no Construction Workers to be seen. The lanes were even painted where there were no lines painted before! It was like Heaven had suddenly come to Earth, because we now had 6 lanes to use, instead of the 2 or 3 which could be reduced to 1 for hours at a time during construction.

However...There's a part of a song that says "...into every life a little rain must fall...". About a week ago I noticed the local Road Traffic Law Enforcement Agency personnel perching on top of the cement median on the highway. This was something they could NOT do during construction of the highway, seeing as there was no median for them to use!

And, of course, they were not there just to make sure that traffic flows smoothly. No! They were there to ensure that the traffic flows slowly, because they sat on the median with cameras and radar trapping devices which are aimed (literally?) at making people slow down to below the speed limit...Waaaayyy below the speed limit.

It's amazing how the sight of a Law Enforcement Officer sitting behind a radar camera can cause people to develop a conscience. Unfortunately, they generally feel so bad that they slow down so much that they end up travelling, at least, 20 km/h below the actual posted speed limit!

It's like the balance thing kicks in with the human psyche as well. People seem to think: "I've been driving over the speed limit up to this point...Maybe if I slow down to waaayyyy below the limit where the Traffic Police....uhm...person can see me, it'll make up for the fact that I've been bad up to here!".

Anyway...Like I said in the beginning...With the good, comes the bad. With the nice, comes the "not so nice". With the open roads and lack of road works, comes the return of the Traffic Police! With the increase of traffic flow, comes the proportionate increase in probability of being caught by the Traffic Department.

Remember..."For everything, there's a season..." My season has now come to enjoy the opening of the extra lanes on the highway, but to enjoy it in such a manner that I do not allow the Traffic Law Enforcers to upset the balance in my bank account!

Drive safely and, specifically if you're riding a motorcycle, keep the rubber side down and the shiny side up...