Just the idea that I have to do something different is enough to vapor lock my starting motor on a hot day in the middle of traffic. I like things just the way they are thank you very much. I’d certainly be glad to take a look at it, see what is in it for me, but I can’t make any promises. Frankly, I tried that and it just didn’t work. Nobodies tried harder to find a way to make this thing work, but it just doesn’t. If we do consider it I’m not sure how soon we’d be willing to adopt the new policy. Take a number we’ll call you when it’s your turn. One of the great advantages we have here is hindsight, and we now know from previous experiments that this just does not do what you claim it will do. Personally I am all for it, but what am I going to do nobody else is. Ultimately it comes down to whether you believe you are going to be better off with this new
system. If you like the old system you can keep it until we can figure out how to destroy it and force you to try the new one. No, we don’t mean blow it up, we mean we’ll just tinker with it until it isn’t anything like what it started out to be. It will begin as a trickle and end in a stampede. Eventually it will have to be replaced with something better….
Highway Home The Novel
“He looked around and suddenly didn’t like
what he saw here: these vagabonds at this truck stop, these nomads and gypsies
all spoke of souls hollowed out by the weariness of the road’s empty, and
lonely, endings. There was too much of the sense of crawling into a sleeping
bunk at the end of a long day, alone out on the road, parked at a truck stop.
This life, alone, was what was waiting for anyone who picked this trade. It was
a vacant and solitary toll, and Noel took it to be a sign, a life lesson for him.”
