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Random Thoughts #1 by Whitecrow
MJD: 56472
Days since hatching: 9517
After having an interesting and deep line of thought, I decided that I should write things like this down instead of letting them fade into the aether of my mind only to reemerge later. This will of course not be a regularly occurring series since the flow of thoughts like this are highly unpredictable. Anyway, if you find what I write interesting, feel free to comment on it.
The Trans-formative power of the car.
It is often assumed by humans that when driving they are a separate entity from their vehicles. In practice, however, the combination of man and machine is more of a chimera then most would think. Outside of a car an individual is a mere ninety to several hundred pound intelligent ape. However when one enters a car and turns the ignition, they are suddenly transformed into a several thousand pound machine that can can travel many times faster and is capable of killing tens of thousands of people each year in the United States alone.
The anonymity that is given through driving has a significant effect as well. Unless you are right beside them and have matched speed, it is very difficult to even distinguish the occupant of the other vehicle, never mind react to the nonverbal communication that would be used face to face. For these reasons, a car becomes a macro expression of ones personality. This is often done intentionally by choice of make and model, Customization, and Tuning. However it happens unintentionally in the way that one acts as the Vehicle's brain. Ones emotions, that would show little presentation inside of the cabin, are expressed by the way that the car Accelerates, turns, brakes, and sounds. A person at ease will drive in a calm and relaxed fashion. A person that is tired or drunk will drive in a similar manner to the way that whey would walk.
However, the most intriguing expressions are of aggression and haste. When felt by the driver, the car becomes an avatar of these feelings at best and a weapon to intimidate and kill at worst. An aggressive driver will use that car as tool to enforce their dominance over others on the highway. While most will follow the generally accepted advice to steer clear of the aggressor in question, a few will take this as a personal challenge to their own ego and react in kind. The best case scenario from such a confrontation would be that one of the combatants will blink and things return to a relative normalcy. If neither side backs down, however, the situation holds the potential to escalate from aggressive posturing to a pitched battle of steel vs steel that can have disastrous consequences for the combatants and anyone who is unlucky enough to be in the vicinity.
The results of expressed haste are usually a willingness to bend or even outright break the law. When pressed for time or distance, the once understandable speed limit becomes an inconvenient suggestion that when the situation is desperate enough will be quickly abandoned. The signals that regulate traffic are subject to similar reinterpretation. A stop sign or a red light suddenly turn into a yield sign or a yellow light. The yellow light and yield sign simply cease to exist and fade into the unimportant background. At this point the old aphorism, Haste makes waste, will quickly and harshly come into play if a cop is near by, or another car goes unnoticed, or a telephone pole suddenly appears in the middle of the road.
In short, you car may not be Christine, but it still can have dangerous effects on ones life. As such it is advisable to keep ones passions in check and exercise good judgement.
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Lone Companion
I was pulling into a parking space yesterday day, thinking about how my perception of space extends out to the outside of the car, and wondering how people's skill/ability to spatially perceive their external environment, when it applies to their normal fleshy bodies, probably plays into their skill at driving.
I slid slightly over a median near a stop sign a few days ago, when a flash snow happened after I'd been at the store. My roommate was with me. Backed up, moved on, car drove fine, I took the windy road home with added caution. He said I was a really good driver apparently due to my attitude and things, and I tucked that into my hat. Told him this has happened enough I am used to it, and far as the damage goes, may car is so dinged up all I care about is it drives right and I don't have to pay to get something fixed. However, found no damage to the car.
I was reading someone's blog about their thoughts on what the soul, or the self, or Identity was, and they were talking about how when in a car, they considered that their soul/identity may extend out to include the car, as well as their own body. Their definition of soul was stripped down to a pretty fundamental level, and I'd say was about the same as saying "self." I thought about this blog entry while I was pulling my car into the parking space, as mentioned at top.
All this thinking about cars and selves has made me start thinking of my car more as my steed. My scarred warrior steed. In meditation and in the things I am seeing in Reality, lately, I've been seeing/noticing more stuff about horses.
I like the idea of being a car's brain. I'd like to add a few things to mine to turn it into a Decepticon. If I am the brain, I'd be this Decepticon.
"Ones emotions, that would show little presentation inside of the cabin, are expressed by the way that the car Accelerates, turns, brakes, and sounds."
I am cautious and drive like I am stepping over things on the ground or give a wide distance to things that could shoot out in front of me, like other cars that come to a stop too abruptly at a stop sign. Their brakes could go out, or, more likely, their drivers are in a hurry and might be sloppy in their awareness. My father is a runner, I have run some myself, and I am especially aware of people walking or on bikes and will go left of center for them if there is nothing else on the other side of the road.
When someone rides to close to the trunk of my car, I slow down, sometimes considerably, to tell them to back off.
I let people through when they are suck waiting at an intersection, if doing so will not put me in danger of being rear-ended or their getting hit by the other lane of traffic (a lesson I learned when flagged though, myself, early in my driving and my car has the scars to show it). On the highway, I tend to let cars pass by me, slowing down slightly to let them pass, and I like to stay in the open, so that there are fewer things to collide with me. If I am significantly speeding, I will stay in the heard/flock so there is the potential that someone else gets picked off by the (hawk-like) traffic cops. I try to stay away from semi-trucks as much as possible -- sudden wind, brakes going out on mountain slopes, the driver nodding off -- semis and about all other vehicles are bigger than my Honda Civic; staying away from them is best and not an inconvenience. Semis are also hard to see around, and if I am too close behind them, they can't see /me/. Cars that are significantly smashed up send off an alarm to me -- and probably I send that message to other thoughtful drivers and they stay away from me, as I am driving the same car I did when I learned to drive and I had a few significant accidents!