We breathe Sacred Love. We celebrate Sacred Sexuality. We roar with Sacred Laughter (if we don't, we should). We all know of sacred architecture, sacred art, sacred music, sacred ground. Today I was joyfully roadsurfing in the rain in lousy traffic, and it came to me as I artfully avoided being run off the road by an eighteen-wheeler, I was engaged in Sacred Driving.
I love driving, and I love cars. Old ones in particular. Say what you will, there is something sacred about the car. I love the sweet machine I get to drive. She's a 1991 Toyota Celica GT, straight off the assembly line 170,000 miles ago, with a slightly crumpled front end that predates my ownership (She's actually my wife's car, I no longer own one), and a few small enhancements under the hood made by yours truly. She is clean, cute and she scoots.
She's got a killer stereo. Ten speakers and a subwoof in a cabin the size of a Porta-Potty. When I'm cruising with Scott Joplin or Janis Joplin - and I am a wee bit deaf - sometimes I forget that I am not the only one in the world - or perhaps I AM the only one in the world who feels like a little Shakira, Sheila E or Shostakovich at the moment.
Not a hot car, not that fast, better-than-decent on gas. She's small, nimble, robust, and good to go - this is sacred driving, not sacred sex! She's also gray, small, nondescript and virtually invisible on the road - which I have believed for half a century is a prime virtue - in an automobile. I've made a hobby of driving fun, classic older cars that neither car thieves nor police ever look twice at or even once.
If I had money I would own at least six cars. One would be a turbocharged Mercedes diesel station wagon. One would be a 1967 Datsun 1600 Roadster. One would be something like that 1951 Riley convertible I once almost bought. One would absolutely be a 1960-ish Triumph TR-3 Roadster - it would be my third one. And so on. Ah, but not being able to be with the ones I love...I love the one I'm with!
Some folks think the Celica was Toyota's answer to the Datsun 240Z, introduced in 1972. Mais non! Toyota put the Cellie on the drawing board in 1967, in answer to the Ford Mustang. The Cellie continued in production through 2005. You see very few in the US. Sales gradually deflated in this country but they sold like hotcakes in Canada and Europe, which is where most of them are today.
In so many ways freeway traffic is a metaphor for life! In the past, metaphors for man were found among the animal and plant worlds, and the elemental forces of life. We now have the technology to correct that.
I propose Sacred Everything! Name something that is not sacred. I will say, "How do you know?" Obnoxious, aren't I?
8-D
You got a car, I got one too,
But yours don't ride as good as mine do,
Don't get mad at me man, cause your car ain't as good as mine,
She's a good struggle buggy and she's ready to go all the time.
She got springs up front, she got springs behind,
She got springs on her that I can't find,
Don't get mad at me man, cause your ride ain't sweet like mine,
She's a good struggle buggy and she's ready to go all the time.
She got overdrive, she got cruise control,
She got what it take to satisfy my soul,
Don't get mad at me...
("Struggle Buggy" old blues song)
That first post called Sacred Driving was sort of a hymn of joy. I love to drive the way some guys love to surf, and it's the same sport. I have a definite mindset and method while driving in freeway driving, and it's something I developed many years ago. I first wrote it up when I drove for Fed Ex in the early 90s - was hoping after a back injury to become a driving instructor for them - but alas, they were not interested. Nevertheless, the way I drive allows me to drive faster than the average speed of the traffic around me while remaining safer, less liable to being pulled over, and in addition keeps my stress level around zero. Years ago, I called it Roadsurfing. Now I recognize it as a real Zen thing involving almost driving by intuition.
Today I was trying to explain how I drive to Brandon, a young apprentice butcher with dreadlocks who is at least a foot taller than I am. I really like this young fellow...he said something about how he gets frustrated and angry and indulges in road rage. We were just on a cigarette break. I told him, "You gotta come driving with me, that's all." I actually think he's gonna do it.
Long ago before I even drove a car, I remember standing on a freeway overpass and watching the traffic flow past beneath me. Everyone knows how drivers bunch up in packs, with more or less empty spaces between, and how it's safer to drive in the spaces. Standing there on the bridge, it suddenly hit me that what I was watching was a wave phenomenon. The denser packs represented the crests of the wave, and the troughs were the spaces between them. By counting, I discovered that the wave's frequency was remarkably true. At the time, since I didn't drive, I just sort of filed the info away in the back of my brain.
Many years later, I stumbled across a book on molecular dynamics and at about the same time, came across an old issue of Scientific American that discussed that very subject - the wavelike regularity of traffic patterns. The book on molecular dynamics made it clear to me that individual drivers behave in precisely the same way as molecules in a stream. That is, while the stream's direction and velocity are fairly constant under even conditions, individual molecules of water, air or whatever, act in perfectly independent ways, going faster, slower, cross-track, or even against the flow.
This brought some further revelations concerning free will, sovereignty, and individualism, but those relate to driving only peripherally.
If you stand on an overpass and watch freeway traffic passing beneath you, you will quickly verify the wavelike behavior of the overall stream. The key to the way I drive is knowing how to surf the wave.
The basic principle is very simple, it consists of simply judging the average speed - not the local speed - of the stream. This plus about five is your target or ideal speed. First you find a space in a trough - the empty spaces where there are fewer cars - and tuck in. If you're going at a good clip and there aren't any crazies nearby, you're good to go. I use this initial stage to settle in and sort of feel out the wave, because every day is different.
I like to drive in the middle lane or the fast lane most of the time, but I don't like to spend all the time in the fast lane because I want the cowboys to be able to speed on past, and I don't like to change lanes. So I look for a good place to tuck in. But sooner or later, I will want to start surfing, which means pulling ahead and actually using the chaos at the crest of the wave, where the traffic is dense and people are jockeying for position and giving each other the finger - ego driving - actually using that energy to propel my vehicle forward into the next trough, where I'll tuck in again in the middle lane. This takes finesse and a real intuition about how other drivers will behave. This is where knowing how molecules behave in a stream becomes key.
It's a game. If done right, I can average 75 miles an hour in traffic that's barely averaging 70. Nothing is ever personal. I always let myself be passed. I drop back rather than race for a position, nearly always. I always signal, always look twice, always double-check. I drive assertively, not aggressively. When I get "in the zone" I find myself fully relaxed, fully alert, totally in harmony with the wave. I actually look forward to commuting. Well, most of the time.
8-D
Hey Dave,
I too love my cars.....
Do you know why toyota dropped the celica.......
They got caught cheating in world rally and tried to disassociate themselves with the name, they now race the corolla....lol....clowns............I liked the celica's too! I think they are back.....or coming soon....
For the record.......I lost my license 5 times in 5 years, I learnt, sort of........I still hoon.......haven't lost my license for years.....I did get 4 speeding tickets at the start of this year, yes 4 in just over a month. The fastest I was over the limit was 5 mph , the slowest would have been 3. What is the minimum over the limit you would get booked for? here it is about 4 kilometers per hour, ie 2 and a bit mph....it's just revenue raising......our speedo's aren't even required to be that accurate....by law....
My problem on the road.....lol....... is that I got used to riding motorbikes, I didn't have a car for ?..8 years.....bikes don't wait for traffic....well mine never did........bikes are never caught up in traffic.....I do "road rage" in my car but it is just a game I play, I love to swear at other drivers, I don'y really mean it....lol....swear and breathe sacred love at the same time ..lol.....I know I should stop and I will but it is too much fun..........
Love your topics Dude!
Jez
--- Post removed at author's request ---
Dave,
I, too, love cars with a passion and love to drive (fast, of couse)! If you don't drive at least 60 to 70 mph here in Dallas, you will get run over! I know it sounds totally careless and wasteful, but I love to drive much faster than most, sometimes over 90 mph. Don't tell!
I currently own an Acura TL Type S. It has white pearl paint, a wonderful Bose stereo system with 6-CD changer and Bose speakers, a satellite navigation system, wood trim, and tan leather seats with seat heaters . . . I LOVE this car!!! I barely press on the pedal and the car just takes off like a rocket effortlessly! Very little sound is heard inside the cabin with tinted windows and beloved sunroof where I let the glorious Texas sun shine through. I have had many cars since I was 16 (first one was a brand new 1986 Honda Civic that Billie Jean King drove around the arena during a tennis tournament here in Texas in 1986 . . . the car had 12 miles on it when I received it on my 16th birthday).
My husband, Chris, also loves cars as do all 3 of our children (particularly Benjamin, agre 10). Ever since Ben could speak he has been naming cars as we drive down the street. I think "Mustang" was his first car-word and then "Porsche". Ben also reads Car & Driver and can tell you most anything you would like to know about most any make and model. He and his dad go to lots of car shows together and he loves it! Look at the attached photos of Ben at an Italian car show that came to the Dallas/Fort Worth area last summer.
Love & light,
Penny :-)
Hey Bro!
I'm not talking about the kind you have to plug in either! Have you seen the documentary "Free Energy: Race to Zero Point" yet? It was mentioned in one of the lessons (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7365305906535911834) and it blew me away. One of the featured segments was of an electric car the inventor had built that was producing more energy than it was using. Wont serve the monopoly interests of the Oil Cartel,
but !@#$ 'em.
Chris
Hey Penny,
I particularly love Italian cars and bikes......I own a Ducati...my little baby girl...lol....I once knew a guy who's dad bought the lamborgini's into Australia and he let me start up a Diablo and rev it for a while.....so cool, I loved your photo's....the bright colors,
Dave, on the particle thing, I find trying to go faster than the traffic in my car doesn't work, I do it but I make a "clown" of myself in the process..it doesn't flow......on my bike it is another story and I have said, even to police officers, that it is much safer to keep steadily moving past people. 5 km/hr.... On a bike it really is life and death stuff at times....
There are a couple of modes to my riding style.....unnoticed and noticed...I swap about........My ultimate goal when I ride is to not "affect" anyone, I should be able to come and go with them barely noticing me........I go from, and thru, wave after wave.....all the while I am looking "forward",never behind, for reactions, and constantly evaluating everything around me.. I 'm actually counting on the cars doing nothing, just going about their business.
If I can ride down the middle of cars and get to the front at a set of traffic lights I know that as I am lighter and accelerate faster I will be "on my own" and this is much safer. Safer than riding between them while they are moving but I do this too to get thru the wave.....sometimes...lol.....I know if I just sit behind or near someone that they could "miss" me, forget me, take a quick look and not see me....has happened to me....I'm not very big, I fit into blind spots,.......... I am happy to never just "sit" in traffic, if I can I will only ever stop on the first row at a red light, it'soften the only time I ever put my feet on the ground.
My first rule when I "sense" danger..........be noticed!...I switch modes....now it goes from being "invisible" to being "bigger" than the cars, bikes are just waiting to "explode" they have a massive potential energy and are eratic next to a car.....many now have more horsepower than kilograms of weight.......you only really see that in formula one cars and the like......these are street legal....it is one of our few advantages!....
even if I look silly....once someone see's me the likely hood they will run into me is less...hugely less...I ride at cars and "push" them at times...aggresively....I have to defend my space....make them notice me.....I'm happy if people are "swearing at me" suits me...not my goal, but.......we bike riders do annoy some car drivers.....it is all about our "presence", respect... we need it to live....we need to stand out, we blend to easy....can get hurt too easy...permanently hurt in the smallest of accidents..
I know the waves well but not in my car......and I have a commodore...just a six cylinder, 10 years old....big car....if you know the , I think pontiac GTO?, the 5.7 or 6.0 litre thing..we call them Monaro's......I have essentially the 4 door of that, a cheap one.....but lowered with 17"rims, full "illegal" 2.5 inch exhaust system, by accident!.....sounds good!......stereo but no power amps or anything...tinted windows and a back seat full of dog hair.......it's no longer suitable for people back there..lol....
Jez
How well I remember Dallas traffic! That's where I drove for FedEx, and where I perfected what I call Surfing Blacktop or Roadsurfing, turning driving into a sport. I had an Acura for a while after I moved out here to San Diego. I loved it, but it had this very bad habit of not starting unless it was parked pointing downhill. Never could figure out why, but I got rid of it after it left me stranded one afternoon with hardly any cash on me....and I walked 18 miles home, half of it on the freeway shoulder.
Rush hour on Central Expressway or 635 is one thing...but ain't it fun to see if you can get to Canton in under an hour?
That is a fine-looking boy you have there! My kids are in Garland with my ex.
8-D
Wont serve the monopoly interests of the Oil Cartel...
Which is why we won't see them in common use in the next few years. They're entirely too NP. Their day is coming though. One of the things that fills me with hope and confidence regarding the coming shift is that much of the technology we'll need is already here. It is simply being ignored or suppressed by the PWB.
London is currently testing electric buses that generate some of their own energy. Each wheel is a powerful electric motor that is driven by the batteries...but when the bus brakes, the motors become generators that send power back into the batteries. There's stuff like this going on all over the place. I don't know how many thousands of people are driving old diesel vehicles that they've converted to used vegetable oil. Considering that Rudolf Diesel designed the engine to run on peanut oil in the first place, it's a very simple conversion.
The OP solution is to turn half our agricultural land over to ethanol crops. Let 'em. Everything they do just hastens the shift. They can do nothing these days it seems, without being almost immediately overwhelmed by ancillary problems that they can't deal with.
The bottom line never changes, it only becomes more obvious. There's nothing anyone can do to keep the Old Order from falling apart. There is no need to waste energy trying to bring it down. Doesn't matter who wins the election, either. Anyone who gets elected will be a disaster. As we hone our knowledge and marshall our resources for the shift, I'm thinking more and more that I should enjoy my Celica while I can.
8-D
It's been a long time since I've ridden a bike...motorcycle, that is! And you're right...the dynamic is completely different. I hate it when bikes come up between the cars because I rarely see them coming and they startle me - but I know exactly why they do it, and I would, too.
I've bicycled a lot, for decades. I rode a ten-speed through the city and the country as my main mode of transport for years and years. In the city, I've been spit on, had beer bottles thrown at me, and I've been hit four times. I know all about defensive riding! Your biggest enemy on two wheels is invisibility.
8-D
I think Ben is cute, too!
Love & light,
Penny :-)
Sooo true me dear brother! While we have one eye on our common goal of cooperation with transformation, we have the other eye on one simple idea to get at an answer in this world - Cui Bono ("To whose benefit?", literally "[being] good for whom?"). Their days are numbered my brother in (transformative) arms.
Chris