On the Road

“Team Midwest Tour” is inscribed on my wedding ring because Lucas and I moved from Iowa to Illinois to Wisconsin within the first few years of our relationship. Our families are spread across Iowa and Illinois. Unsurprisingly, we’ve logged quite a few miles on I-80, 380, and 151. Not to mention the the long stretch of Highway 20 where Lucas’s Pontiac broke down en route to Christmas with his poor bearded dragon Beryl in tow.

I’d say I don’t particularly enjoy traveling by road, but when I searched my digital photos for anything road-related, that didn’t seem truthful. I have SO MANY crappy pictures taken through the haze of the windshield. Clouds, fields, trees, flowers. Barns, cows, goats, chickens. Lots of sunsets. Then there’s the creative ways people label their rides, canines in convertibles, a street full of inflatable Santas, and of course the wienermobile.

*As seen on the road, and yep that first one says “Legs on Lease: We Do Most Anything Legal”*

But as much fun as that can be, and as grateful as I am for the ease with which roads allow me to visit my family and travel other places, not to mention the access they give me to the goods and services that are part of my daily life, it’s clear from Crossings that our infrastructure has a significant cost to our world, and it’s a cost we can and should reduce.

Did you have any takeaways from Crossings that surprised you?

How about that study where they replicated road sound (from a not very busy road!) in the middle of a forest and animals avoided the area due to the sound alone? Crossings shows that for us* roads mean easy access for anywhere we want to go, but they have the opposite effect for animals, leading to dysfunction in the ecosystem (like inbreeding, and an imbalance between predators and prey) or outright death.

*Of course, roads have their downsides for humans too, which I can easily attest to just moving from one neighborhood to another, but I’ll save that for another day or we can chat about it in the comments.

Turkey Talk

*Sign along the bike path — maybe we could add another few rows for turkeys, snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits, mice, woolly caterpillars to represent all the bugs, the list goes on…*

The turkeys in our neighborhood are a common sight, but we enjoy it every time we see them. Just this Saturday morning we stopped for a few bobbing their way across the road—

Lucas: The fact that they’re so big is nice. Makes them easier to see when driving.

Leigh: They could be more colorful. Maybe… paint… them?**

Lucas: The City of Madison could give them little orange vests.

**We were headed to a coffee shop. Clearly I needed that forthcoming latte.

Fun to picture, but obviously unrealistic. Goldfarb helps us understand that what is real is the value we get from reducing roads where they aren’t needed, creating wildlife crossings, and integrating animal migration when new roads are constructed. The benefit isn’t for the animals alone, we also benefit from healthy and car-protected wildlife populations with accident reduction, jobs, beautification of spaces, and repair of an ecosystem that impacts human health.

Have you noticed the impacts, good or bad, of any recent road projects in your area? If they were bad, how do you think they could have been improved?

If you haven’t read Crossings yet, I really hope you’ll pick it up. Even if it’s months from now, feel free to chat about it in the comments! I have all the newsletters linked from the book lists on the Book Club page so you can find it easily again.

I’ll close with this quote Goldfarb mentions, from the correspondence of Mr. Rogers and Tom Junod, about why it was worth writing about people helping animals. It stuck out to both my mom and me. (Hi, Mom!)

“Because whenever people come together to help either another person or another creature, something has happened, and everyone wants to know about it—because we all long to know that there's a graciousness at the heart of creation.” — Mr. Rogers

Cat Sun Dial comic about a cat powering up from the sun all day to play — *A comic starring Annie, made while helping Lucas at M+Dev last year but I sat on it until now so the sunset timing would work :)*

Books & More Books

December’s Book

December is often so busy, so let’s take a few deep breaths with Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. This is a short one, only 128 pages, or 1 hr and 56 minutes if you listen to the audiobook.

Holiday Book Recommendations

If you find yourself pressed thinner than cookie dough at the holidays, try Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year: A Little Book of Festive Joy by Beth Kempton. Kempton gently guides the reader toward the best holiday they can have. I love listening to her audiobooks, which she narrates herself.

If you’ve ever thought Bingley from Pride & Prejudice might be a fun romantic lead, consider The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig. I’ve read this book over a few Christmases and recently loaned it to my sister, who enjoyed it just as much.