Friday Filler – Deciding Who Is Driving This Car

Thank Grog It’s Firday!

I love that we got another vehicle for our towns. I don’t love that we still can’t place them on streets. But, then again, I’m not sure I want a “Demon Car” roaming around my town on a daily basis. We have enough demons to deal with in real life. Making it easy for them to move around easily is not going to help the situation. 

I put mine near the “Destruction Derby;” where all demon cars belong.

This update, and so many other updates in the past couple of years, feels the same. It’s just one long revolution around a track. Same process, same scenery types, with a handful of new characters or skins thrown in. But, because of the added availability  of options with the increased Item Cap, I do feel as if some sort of decision making in regards to “where this car goes,” is back in my hands.

Are we at the wheel? Or do we just THINK we are at the wheel? And even if we are at the wheel, where in the hell (pun intended for this update) are we going???

Coincidentally, the day I “won/earned” the “Demon Car,” I had just finished reading a really inciteful interview with Bruce Springsteen in Vanity Fair about his new album and documentary “Letter to You.”  I admit that I have not really been a rabid fan of “The Boss’s” music. I like it. I understand why his fans love the guy. But, not sure it would make my “Top 10 on a desert island” list. 

However, I love his mind. His book, “Born to Run” was one of the best-written, most inciteful autobiographies that I have read in the past couple of decades. He wrote every word in this 500+ page tale of life in New Jersey, the making of his music, personal relationships, and views and ruminations about this country. 

In this interview, there is a great car quote that is not about Corvettes, or Chevys, or running away with your girl on a Saturday night. Springsteen talks about life this way. “One of the points I’m making in the book is that, whoever you’ve been and wherever you’ve been, it never leaves you. I always picture it as a car. All your selves are in it. And a new self can get in, but the old selves can’t ever get out. The important thing is, who’s got their hands on the wheel at any given moment?”

I have always believed we have ten fingers, because it reminds us that we live our lives in decades. The “you” that is newborn thru nine-years-old, shapes the “you” that is 10, 20, 30 and clear up until the “vehicle is finally parked.”

Early development, how we are raised, how we learn to treat one another, how we respond to challenges, adversity and criticism, never really leaves us. Some would argue that the term “immature” really is more about “a younger version hijacking the the car,” no matter what the age of the vehicle.

As we age, it’s best to “take counsel” from the other versions of you in the car, but we are supposed to know that with age and experience, comes the need to make sure the immature, “less formed” versions of you, remain belted tightly in the back seat. 

I loved the way Lisa tried her best to seek counsel from what she perceived to be logical resources…after she was “damned” by the demon. So much for trusting adults…

Another wise man, the Roman statesman Cicero offered a more specific vision of what elders should do and be: “It’s not by strength or speed or swiftness of body that great deeds are done,” he wrote, “but by wisdom, character and sober judgment. These qualities are not lacking in old age but in fact grow as time passes.”

At least that is how it is supposed to work. 

Life is just one big ride, full of decisions regarding “which way to turn,” and “where do we want to go?” The age-old metaphor for attracting others to “come along for the ride,” is reliant on showing them that you know how to drive, can offer the best way to get to the destination, and won’t crash the car by driving recklessly.

Even if we are driving a demon car, in a demolition derby…next to a graveyard. 
There are too many metaphors for our current state of affairs in the real world in this pic…

The journey is supposed to result in the reward of “joy” for the travelers.  ALL of the travelers…not just those driving or sitting in front. In every sense of the car analogy, we find ourselves struggling to trust those behind the wheel, and not allowing dread to overtake joy, brought on by the feeling that we have no choice in the direction of the journey. 

We have a choice. We always have a choice.

As I have written about before, this year has been a year of a seemingly endless parade of “cars being parked,” whose former owners were friends, family and associates.  The list of friends and relatives that have “parked” over the past 18 months is a bit staggering, and admittedly has cut into my “joy for life.”  

I have come to the realization that the opposite of joy is dread, not anger or sorrow. We are sorrowful at a passing, because we dread the same. Nobody wants to be told they can’t drive anymore. And almost as troubling is the notion of losing control, and being relegated to the back seat to wait out the last leg of the journey.

But, like it or not…it is inevitable. 

TSTO has clearly been relegated to the plight of a “slot car track,” that was built years ago, with old technology. It continues to exist, but it is obvious to everyone, that the makers are “out of ideas and parts” and are simply just changing the paint on the same car, as it revolves endlessly around the track.  There are outages…breaks in the action…but, at best, when we are back “on the road,” it is the same road, with no clear destination except “one more lap.” 

Nobody wants to live life like that.  Without change, without evolving, we are actually going backward. And if the driver(s) are unable to recognize their poor judgement, the result, without course correction, is inevitable. 

Sometimes, even if it feels powerful, and edgy, and fun at the time (because it strikes fear into your neighbors, and resonates with the 10-year-old bully inside), you have to choose to park the demon car. It’s just not good for anyone in the long run to let something as evil as a demon car run free. 

In the final analysis…It’s your car.  So YOU get to pick the driver.  

Choose wisely.