by Tiffany J. Baker

Created on: August 06, 2008

What? You don't get out much? Well, you are missing out my friend! Life is just outside your car window! Make your world what you choose to see.

The world lies safely between you and your car window. It is as though you are a harmless and also helpless observer in a known (sometimes unknown) universe. You can be a quiet observer of nature or a noisy matron of man. As I become a witness to life, love, and livestock, my soul is forever greatful.

There is a quote that I remember from an unknown author: "The truly happy person is the one that can enjoy the scenery on a detour!" I have always found myself enjoying the scenery. The four walls that our every present in my home become suffocating at times. The free and open road (unless a toll road of course), is as good a place as any for me the find my peace. Peace of mind, peace of life, and peace of freedom.

There is something magical that takes place when you get behind the wheel of your car. From the moment you are handed your license by that little old lady in the stinky, hot bureau of wasted money, your freedom as you know it becomes real.

As a teenager, you become relaxed and free. You gaze upon the faces of your friends and strangers through the windows of your Ford Pinto with pure satisfaction in a matter-of-fact kind of style known as "invincibility". You stop to pick up fiends. You begin to realize that you are the adult in the situation and you are in control of your own destiny. Looking through the dingy glass, you see a new future. The once dark and lonely exsistence you thought your knew before becomes lost in a daze. There is a sense of pride and belonging you see around you on the roads you drive.

Your gleaming eye becomes transfixed on life and the open road. You see where you choose to take yourself. Albeit an open and secluded field of green grass or a hot dog stand on the corner of a busy metropolis, your perceptions are real and true.

We have all had the craving for a long, open-road drive "to clear our heads". You crank up the good tunes, roll down the window with your hair blowing and drift away. Cheap entertainment some might say! Banners, faces, billboards, gas stations, shopping, hot and classic cars- all free reality in your face!

I can think back to endless times in my life that my car windows have provided shelter, comfort, independence, entertainment, longing, sadness, frustration, and envy. Depending on moods, perceptions, and environmental factors- transporting to somewhere new and exciting is just a pedal to the metal away!

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