Don’t Go There

Happy are those . . . who
don’t go where sinners go.
        —Psalm 1:1

Maybe it’s because I live in Houston, Texas, where flooding isn’t a matter of “if” but “when,” that I found the name of a street in Santa Barbara, California, intriguing.

The street name is “Salsipuedes”—Spanish for “leave if you can.”

Soon after Santa Barbara’s incorporation in 1850, a street grid was laid out and the streets named, some reflecting the topography of the area. A portion of Salsipuedes skirted the edge of a marsh that often flooded. “Leave if you can.”

The Bible cautions that some streets aren’t safe to travel. Wisdom’s voice in Proverbs 4 serves up this warning: “Don’t set foot on the path of the wicked; don’t proceed in the way of evil ones. Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by” (Prv. 4:14–15).

Sometimes smart people do stupid things.

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