Pedestrian by choice or choice pedestrian?

Krista comments that the striking design she photographed is anything but “pedestrian,” which also means “lacking inspiration or excitement; dull.” In response to the latest photo challenge of WordPress.

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This truck is going down a steep decline and as it is legislated for trucks to go down this descent in first gear this happens at a pedestrian pace.  The pass has 3 of these hairpin bends. While traveling up here in my car for the first time I wondered why the pass was built at this specific point because apart from the hairpin bends, it is quite an ascent. That was until I realized that this is a classic example of an escarpment, you cannot go around the “mountain” and once on top you do not travel down as with a normal pass.

⇓Underneath is the escarpment ridge with the road carved out on the foothills as well as the 2nd hairpin bend. About 15 km down the road is the closest town Vanrhynsdorp hence the name Vanrhyns pass. This is Namaqualand which turns into a flower paradise in Spring.

⇓As for the furry (okay woolly) contents of the truck  – these are normally pedestrians by choice. In fact I do not know of even 1 sheep with a driver’s licence, except maybe for few ABC drivers (conundrum time: reshuffle and replace 2 of the letters with other letters), however that comparison should probably made with pigs… But wait I am digressing and may fall off (or being driven off) the escarpment with these turns I take. Sheep normally plod along at a pedestrian pace with a pedestrian outlook on life. They do not choose to be pedestrians – they just are, demonstrating the multiplicity of the word’s meaning. In the truck they are packed three layers deep and on their way to greater things, (like being choice pedestrian subjects for my lens of course) but their final greatness while lie in their tenderness.

⇓Later that day we reached my father-in-law’s farm outside the town of Kakamas in the Northern Cape and became pedestrians by choice in walking down to the Orange river and crossing a pedestrian bridge very carefully.

⇓A few days later we were the first pedestrians to reach the moon. The moon, contrary to what we have been taught is in the Augrabies National Park close to Kakamas and is actually called Moon Rock. 

⇓The pace going up there was quite pedestrian but my children and I raced down.

⇑But as with all tourist attractions like the moon, the obligatory photo was necessary on this crisp clear winters day.

I believe that it is part of a parent’s responsibility to guide and inspire our children not to be pedestrians in life. A  “lacking inspiration or excitement; dull” lifestyle may appear easier, with less hassles for you as parent but will also limit the child’s experience of life and understanding of God. And one thing is certainly true: they do not grow up at a pedestrian pace. This was 7 years ago and the oldest one is 17 and in grade eleven. On the verge of an escarpment called adulthood.

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