Whenever my family took long drives through the country during my childhood -- which was often, since we actually lived in the country -- I would gaze tirelessly out the window at the utility poles going by. They seemed like living things to me, enormous kachinas strolling across the landscape and waving at us with rigid arms as we passed. Even the simpler ones like the ones in my sketch held my fascination; stretching out as far as I could see in either direction, they created a thread of continuity across the wild desert.
The poles and the railway tracks above ultimately serve the same function: continuity and follow-through, connectivity and opportunity. They are worldwide symbols of power, evolution, and commerce. I threw in a handful of stars above to light the way, to temper the conceit that feeds off of our forward momentum, and to remind us of the true power out there that inspires but simultaneously dwarfs our own.
Our dreams often carry us forward at the expense of others. Indeed, we often even double-cross ourselves along the way, such is our ambition. You can follow the winding paths of the poles and tracks to get to the next civilized outpost; in the meantime the stars are your moral compass, by which to judge your true position in the cosmos at any given moment.
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