A Night in the Car

On Wednesday night, I was driving home from Provo. I had attended class that evening and while I was taking a midterm, a blizzard was burying nothern Utah County. My wife suggested that I spend the night in Orem, but I had started north and the roads were clear and traffic light. That is until I got to Lehi. The final ten miles of my commute took just over three hours. Hundreds of cars sitting in idle. I had turned on the radio to get a traffic report as I headed home, but KSL had chosen to not disrupt the BYU basketball game broadcast to tell listeners that, well, that hundreds of acres of highways and freeways had been jammed with immobile vehicles. I longed for news and was frustrated by not having instantaneous access to it. I called my wife, but was wary of using the phone and "driving" even though I was not moving. Finally, about 9:45 PM, after having spent an hour not moving and being a couple of hours away from home, KSL started a live broadcast fielding calls and text messages from those in the same boat as I, some who had been stuck since 5 PM. Listening did not move me any faster (my shaky knowledge of Lehi surface streets and frontage roads helped a bit there), but it did pass time, and it bonded me to all of those in my same predicament. I marveled that there were no calls or texts of anger, rage, or frustration. There was acceptance. There was humor. There was a desire to pass information and encouragement to others. By having a media outlet, I presume, tension was dispelled. I felt the same way. I wasn't something that was happening to me anymore. It was happening to us. I am glad I could vent occassionally to my wife, but at 10:30, when I encouraged her to go to bed, I was left with the miles and miles of strangers. And with the texts and voices of those strangers.

While teaching on Thursday, I talked to a couple of students who were stuck in that massive jam coming back from state wrestling and club volleyball. They were not a part of KSL's demographic and did not join that same community I did. They did have phones and called and texted friends. For about 30 minutes, I was beside a UTA bus. Those on the bus did not commune face to face. They sat solemn and frustrated. If they had a mediated means to deal with it, perhaps they would have been in a better mind set.

This is a great example of the power of media for those students who were stuck as I was. I don't think that those who did not experience it would understand the power of sharing the experience through the radio that night. It is a great example I can use, and try to find moments when my students had similar experiences.

My favorite moment on the radio was when the announcer kept repeatedly admonishing listeners who were in their homes to not leave their homes and contribute to the traffic mess. I could not help but wonder, "Who leaves their homes at 11:00 PM on a snowy Wednesday night just for the hell of it?"