Observations From the Spectrum

I don’t want to hurt others.  It is not in my nature. I was also taught at a young age to be keenly aware of my surroundings.  I am always observing and trying to understand how and why things work the way they do.  

Recently, after a ten year hiatus, I purchased a car.  I bought the car of my dreams. She is a quirky rough around the edges yet dependable 1982 T25 VW Vanagon.  She is air cooled and is named Mavi Mantar. She gets me to the beach, the mountains, races and seconds as a hotel.  She is great. She is like a home away from home.

She is certainly not the fastest car on the road.  Never was and never will be. It’s also wasn’t my interest or desire when I bought her.  She does do her job from getting me from A to B which is all I ask.

Driving her can feel like bringing a knife to a gunfight when you were told that it was a knife fight.  It is scary driving today. There are all these laws that seem to have no purpose other than holding the ethical mind in limbo.  

Let me explain.  Ethics is how a person fits into the rules of a given society.  Speed limits, stop signs, turn signals, cell phone use all have rules that govern their uses creating an ethics of driving so to speak.  When someone goes against these rules, they are breaking their social contract as a driver. At one level, who really cares? We are all going to occasionally speed and roll through a stop sign.  That’s normal but when someone does it without any regard for others around him or her, they are putting others in mortal danger and therefore are sociopaths.

Speed is awesome.  On a racecourse against other drivers who are willing participants, there is nothing better.  You can go as fast as you can and if you crash, you will only hurt other willing participants.

What I see are drivers who feel so entitled and powerful behind the wheel that they are willing to kill anything that gets in their way which includes kids chasing after balls, grandparents who just don’t move as quick, cats, dogs, sheep, cows, fathers, mothers, friends, lovers, cyclists, runners, pedestrians and any other living creature that might get in their way and governments to corrupt to stop them.  

I like driving Mavi Mantar.  I get to see the flowers, the trees and the houses as I putter along instead of blurs of color, greens and browns as Ray Bradbury would say.

• All works at Observations from the Spectrum written by Dylan Netter
• Observationsfromthespectrum.org
• OFTS.blog 
• On? a third point of view – book of Essays
• Marinehippie.com podcast w/ Docstodden.com – dialogue exploring politics and musings of life 
• Horizoncoaching.org – English Tutor and Guide
• BeeHIVeplus1.org