In my neck of the woods, there are three highways that you can take from my small town to the nearest city.

One is the “easy” highway. It’s the default option, and the one that seems specifically engineered for people driving back from an international flight at midnight. It’s wide (relatively speaking), and save one very steep embankment that is completely unavoidable, has very few twists or surprises. In keeping with this mild driving experience, the views are mildly beautiful. You’ll never drive alone on this highway, and are likely to get tailgated, passed, or stuck behind someone clueless.

The second highway is much more picturesque. It’s a throwback to the old highway system before the interstates took over, and meanders through every small down. Let’s call this one “relaxing,” although it takes a considerable amount of attention more than the first one. This highway takes sudden right turns, sometimes gives you the option to merge onto the easy highway above, and is often traversed with farm equipment. If you want to feel like you’re going fast, don’t take this route–there are lots of twists and turns and 25 mph stretches. On the other hand, there’s much less traffic on this route, so your own pace is usually okay with everybody else. There are some really nice views on this route, especially in between towns.

The third route runs in a neighboring state, and boy can you tell. The speed limit is faster (especially when it cuts across the Reservation) and it’s a little rougher around the edges that these other two. The towns that it cuts through are less picturesque and more just hanging on, or maybe you’d prefer to visit the casino. The people are less patient here–you are guaranteed to get passed–so pay attention. You’ll probably pass an old beater truck yourself. But the views. Man, this highway winds its way through the foothills of the rockies, around baby mountaintops and vast fields that finally give way to an army of trees. In the autumn, the larches light up like fireflies in the forest. This highway gives the type of driving that is good for the soul.

When making a decision between these three options, what you want determines what you’ll get. Most people take the easy route, preferring to bypass interesting side trips in favor of speed and efficiency. Others take the relaxing route, usually the ones who don’t have anywhere in particular to be. Then there are the people who take the third highway, where you have to work a little bit harder but are equally rewarded with beauty.

You think I’m pulling out this whole huge metaphor about life. I’m literally talking about highways, though.

More people use the third highway than would normally explore the road not taken in their own lives. But that doesn’t change that it is the most interesting of the highways, and that it is a good metaphor that life isn’t a guarantee.