Our human events seem to get exponentially faster for us personally as age advances. It feels that, as slow as it seems problems are solved, more problems pile up behind at a sonic boom level. Feet have given way to animals bearing us across land to human-made vehicles, and then into the air.

It is tempting to take the short cut when traveling. Short cuts have their purpose. Maybe we will reach our goal more quickly. Or, there will be unforeseen barriers. We may not be familiar already with the terrain. So, we put a certain amount of trust in guides, who know the territory. More and more, it is electronic, A-I types of tools we use for our movements. Gone is the paper map with creases and tears. It may not be an up-to-date map. Those roads are changing all the time with rerouting and closures. The guide is now Google maps which has its own troubles keeping up. It has improved, as we experienced on a long trip up the west coast to Canada. We still had our share of turn-around maneuvers.

T...