Home | Columns Prologue: Driving
by Matt "Ska-boom" EtlingI'm sure you all think I've lost my mind at this point by wanting articles or whatever about driving. In my mind it's one of those activities that seems so mundane and normal, but can lead to some life-changing moments. Drives can be times for quiet contemplation, exuberant speeding down the highway, singing in your own personal private recording studio or even moments of closure to chapters in life.
There was the time I drove halfway across the state with my girlfriend in the snow. She had come to my college for a winter semi-formal dance. Minutes before she got to my campus, her mother called. Her father, sick with cancer, had just collapsed in the house and had to be taken to the hospital. She pulled up to my dorm in tears and hysterical. We did the only thing we could do... drove back to south-central PA in several inches of snow to be with him. He died there less than a week later. When you're fighting to keep a car in on the road with the girl you love crying and worried to death about her father, riding on the seat beside you... it's tough to explain or verbalize. Hopefully it'll give you a clue as to what was passing through my mind when I came up with this idea.
It's how we get to different places. It's how we get home, how we strike out on memorable road trips, how we wander around wondering what went wrong and why you've been shaken out of your cocoon of a relationship. It's the replay of an evening out with friends or a significant other, played back in your mind at light speed. It's the quiet time to reflect on why you are where you're at, or why you're going to a particular destination. Sometimes it's the only time you feel alone despite having dozens of other people within mere feet of you, separated only by metal, glass and an invisible wall of indifference. Maybe that's why this topic fascinated me so much... it's a blend of society and solitude that hangs just on the edge of your senses.
Now that I’ve gotten this ball rolling, I’d like to read what the rest of you have to add. Don’t get me wrong, I dig articles and stuff about wrestling and Delphi and country-music child singers that you want to hang with a guitar string but I’d like to expand some horizons here. So fire off those submissions this week and allow others to marvel at your writing prowess.
Good luck, and happy writing,
Ska