I took
ownership of my brand-new Prius during the third week of April 2005, so its
ten-year anniversary is nigh. It’s been
a remarkably good car, probably the best car buying decision of my life,
although spending several years behind the wheel of a 1965 Mustang gets
honorable mention.
The Prius
has needed few repairs and none that were catastrophic. Only once did it fail to start and a single
dead battery in a decade is barely worth mentioning.
When I’d had
the car about two years, I conveyed a group of friends to a ballgame. During the drive, I mentioned my intention to
drive the Prius for fifteen years, perhaps leaving myself only one car away
from the end of my driving days. The
others scoffed, arguing that no one keeps a car for fifteen years. But, with the ten-year anniversary nearly
upon us and the Prius running as dependably as the day I first took possession,
I’m guessing the scoffing has ceased.
All of which
led me to be offended when Leah Garchik, a Herb Caen-lite columnist in the San
Francisco Chronicle, reported a comment overhead by one of her correspondents
in an Oakland parking garage, “Owning a Prius isn’t like owning a real car. It’s more like owning an appliance.”
What?! How could someone demean my dependable Prius
that way? How dare they compare my car
to a mere household appliance?
But then I
fell to thinking. Isn’t it right for an
urbanist to think of a car as a convenience?
The goal of a meaningful daily life shouldn’t be to style one’s way
between Point A and Point B. It should
be to get to Point B in the most reasonable and appropriate manner, whether on
foot, by bicycle, in a car, or on a city bus, so that the friends, good food,
or other adventures at Point B can be enjoyed.
A car shouldn’t be life, but an effective tool to take pleasure in
life. Or, in other words, an appliance.
And indeed,
my Prius has been a remarkably good appliance, outlasting a couple of toasters
and a least a dozen vacuum cleaners. (Three
large dogs who continually shed aren’t good for vacuum cleaners.)
None of this
is meant to demean my friends who adore their cars. I remember one friend in particular who built
a separate garage to house his collection of Rolls Royces, Bentleys, and
Corvettes. But I enjoyed their
friendship because I liked them as people, not because of their vehicles. And never once did I think that my life wouldn’t
be complete until I owned a Rolls Royce.
Instead,
I’ll happily drive on in my Prius, the best darned appliance I’ve ever owned.
With a regular
three-times-a-week publishing schedule, it’s inevitable that my blog post days
occasionally fall on holidays. Or on my
birthday. This year, for the first time
since 2013, it’ll be the latter, with the day of my next post falling on my
62nd birthday. Two years ago, as I
reached the milestone of 60 years, I offered my thoughts about who I was and
how my identity fit into this blog. In
my next post, I’ll look back to that post and offer a couple of updates.
As always,
your questions or comments will be appreciated.
Please comment below or email me.
And thanks for reading. - Dave Alden (davealden53@comcast.net)
No comments:
Post a Comment