Filed under: Uncategorized
A 17 year old friend of my daughter was visiting our house a few weeks ago. She is a bright kid, full of spunk, very sociable. We were discussing driving skills, learners permits, drivers’ license stuff. It seemed to me that I was able to insert a few mild bits of wisdom about safe driving skills for teenagers. It also seemed like they were listening to my short sentences. At a certain point in our conversation, our guest started saying: ” I don’t see why parents make such a big deal about driving a car. A car is just like a…( she began to look around the kitchen ) blender. Its just a machine.”
Cough. I almost choked on my whey protein milkshake that I had made in that blender. I can’t remember now how I responded, because I exercised full self-control. I haven’t told her parents yet about the comment, because it seems that my interest in the lives and safety of my kids’ friends is beyond normal. Sometimes I just wanna be normal. Therefore, I am requesting someone out there to compose a hip-hop song named: ” A car is the same as a blender.”
Later on, we were looking through the drivers’ manual and discussing the entrance ramps to highways. Our guest does not drive yet, but she does observe the outside world passing by when her parents drive her to the malls; and I must give her credit for memorizing some of the local roads and geography. When I began to describe why I like entrance ramps and the acceleration lane, she said something in the same tone of mild frustration that the entrance ramps drive her nuts.
At that instant, I thought about how the fine calculations and vision of the civil engineers goes into the design of the entrance ramps, the slope, the angle, even the landscaping. But I had to quickly shorten the thought into the following verbal response: ” But the people who made that entrance ramp designed it to make us HAPPY.” ….whew! I came into a deeper appreciation of the engineers, their thinking substantialized. This, then expanded into an epiphany. Here it goes: All industrial designers and people who produce things that we buy try to make these things so that we will like them. Alot of these products, except for the highest quality items, have some flaws and weakness; yet the original purpose of their creation is for our happiness. As I began to look around our kitchen, living room and dining room at these common consumer items, I could see details in the design and function that I interpreted as divine creativity, Love. It had been a long time since I looked at ordinary manufactured items with this kind of heart.
What started out as a conversation about driving with teenagers, then ended with a renewed appreciation for people who make things and sell them. Little gods, they are my brothers and sisters, inherting creatorship from the First Parent, the Absolute Reality. A car is not the same as a blender.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
