Creative detour

During a detour around a traffic accident this weekend I discovered the problem with creativity. 

The accident had just happened – nothing serious – but in Los Angeles, where even a paper cup on the roadside can result in a two-hour back-up, this was already getting ugly. The guy in front of me decided that rather than crawling along on the main thoroughfare, he would zip down a side street. I watched as his car disappeared down the winding road.  In an instant, I was faced with a quandary: to follow or not to follow. Maybe that driver was from the surrounding neighborhood and knew his way around. Maybe he had a GPS system that was strategically rerouting him based on diagnostic traffic-flow feedback from a satellite high over head. Or, maybe he was as impatient as I was, and wanted to try anything rather than watch the old sidewalk pedestrian limp by us again with a cane. 

(Image via Marcy Reiford on Flickr)

As I inched forward, my window of opportunity was quickly (relatively speaking, of course) closing. By my calculations, I had about 15 more minutes before I would be too far past the street to make a potentially traffic-altering turn. After that, it was nothing but houses as far as I could see – no more exit streets. Do it. Do it, damn it, the voice in my head kept screaming. Oh, but what if you’re wrong? You’ll be winding your way through those dead-end-trapped streets for hours, playing the auto-sized version of the maze game – “Can you help Jeremy find his way to the other end of the maze without cutting through lawns?” At the last minute, I went for it, twisting the wheel hard and gunning it down the street. Freedom! Four blocks later I discovered the loveliest little Cul-de-sac…  By the glare from one of the neighbors who stood clutching her child near a red tricycle, I got the impression I wasn’t the first hopeful detour driver.

For the next hour or so in traffic (going two miles), I thought about how my exit decision was similar to decisions involving creativity: do you go for it or to play it safe? I knew the road I was on would eventually get me to where I was going, I just had to be patient and plod along with everyone else, holding my space – not gaining any ground, not losing any. I took a shot at an alternative route, but it didn’t work out; it was a dead end. I lost a little bit of time and some money on gas. Big deal. Will that stop me from trying the alternative route again? HELL no. Because, one of these times that side street is going to lead to the perfect route to the front of the line, cutting my time in half and putting me in front of the pack. And those dutiful clowns who sit patiently waiting their turn to wind around the corporate logjam will still be waiting while I’m at home having a cold one. Go ahead. Strap on a pair and try the side street. You can always get back in line.