On the Road Post #2

This post will be devoted to the second of the “My Life on the Road.” Like the first post I chose to read through the chapters and reflect where I found sections particularly intriguing or relevant to my own life. Beyond the sections I reference directly, I also found a great deal of interesting topics in all genres, but there simply isn’t enough time in my study schedule for me to write about everything profound that I happened upon.

I enjoyed the short story she told about a time when she was a student. She picked up a large snapping turtle off the side of the road and putting it “back” into the water-- an action she thought would help to assist the turtle in surviving longer and fixing some sort of predicament it was in. While she was well-intentioned, she didn’t consider that perhaps the turtle wanted to be in the position that she thought it needed to rescued from when it may have actually been trying to lay its eggs. This leads her to an important lesson; to address problems one needs to ask the community which is actually experiencing the problems in questions to find where if any help is needed. Similarly she quoted someone later in the book along almost these same lines, “Anybody who is experiencing something is more expert in it than the experts.” I think more broadly and within the context of my life I think the applicable lesson is to assume less about people and the situations that they may be in. Prejudgment is in human nature, but giving others the benefit of the doubt can be invaluable.

There was another instance in the book where a group of orthodox jews was sitting next to her on public transport. They shuffle around until the men and women, but primarily the women are sitting as far away from her as possible. She feels off-put and unwelcome by this, but in the privacy of the bathroom, one of the hasidic women warmly addresses her, appreciating and recognizing her existence. I grew up in the reform branch of the jewish community, but this story made me reflect about the segments of my community that are still very conservative and unwilling to accept progress in our society.

I appreciated her willingness to tackle real and controversial issues like prostitution and forced “sex work.” Her exploration of this topic was an eye opener for me. She helped me to understand a bit better how legislation around prostitution can be multi-faceted, and how laws that are meant to help people can really hurt them more. I felt disgusted and rightly so at her discovery of things like girls being “broken in” in Las Vegas through unimaginable sexual violence and brainwashing. She described girls being forced to come on to men sexually in order to earn tips.

Along the same lines I was really taken aback by her section about our prison system. I have researched a great deal in the past about our broken prison system, but the examples and personal anecdotes she shared hit me straight in the heart. She described a slender young man who was used as a sexual object in prison for a cruel cellmate. The descriptions made me nauseous and ever more scared to end in up in the hell hole that the United States Government has allowed to exist. I applaud her for taking a stand to talk about issues--like our terrible prison system-- that affect both men and women.