On roads
This entry was originally published on Instagram on Monday, 8th of January 2024.
Road: a strip of ground over which one walks.
A highway differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another.
A highway has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects.
A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A highway is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.
Before roads and paths disappeared from the landscape, they had disappeared from the human soul: man stopped wanting to walk, to walk on his own feet and to enjoy it.
What’s more, he no longer saw his own life as a road, but as a highway: a line that led from one point to another, from the rank of captain to the rank of general, from the role of wife to the role of widow.
Time became a mere obstacle to life, an obstacle that had to be overcome by ever greater speed.
Road and highway; these are also two different conceptions of beauty…
In the world of highways, a beautiful landscape means: an island of beauty connected by a long line with other islands of beauty. In the world of roads and paths, beauty is continuous and constantly changing; it tells us at every step: ‘Stop!'.
— Milan Kundera, Immortality