Article from http://www.betweenyourears.ca

So where are you headed? By: Aaron Solly
I read this book that my brother gave me for Christmas one year. The book was called ""Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"" by Robert M. Pirsig. It is an interesting book. It has two storylines that are interconnected. One storyline is about a father and son who are touring across the United States on a motorcycle. The other storyline details a philosophical perspective on the word ""quality"" and the difficulty with defining it. Quality is referred to in the book as shapeless, formless and indescribable. Both of the storylines relate back to the fundamentals of maintaining a motorcycle.
One night, I was reading a chapter about the father and son's arrival to Oregon. The majority of their trip was through small communities in the Central U.S. where the pace of life is noticeably slow. Upon their arrival to Oregon, the father began to feel less connected with the surroundings. He didn't understand why. He noticed that traffic on the highway was traveling at a steady maximum speed. A car tailgated him and wouldn't pass. The drivers passing by seemed more concerned about driving through where they were, to get to where they wanted to be. The father came to a dramatic realization and he said "I know what it is! We've arrived at the West Coast! We are all strangers again!"