Recently, I was away for the day and driving home around dinner time. The traffic was bad and I was trying not to allow a foul mood to overtake me. I called home to tell Kim when I was going to arrive. I could tell she was tired so I asked to talk to my 6 year old, Jared. Jared loves cars. he obsesses over them actually, especially their exhaust systems. He has learned that expensive cars have more than one exhaust pipe (unlike ours); “gas impressers” he used to call them for some reason. He can identify the make/model of cars from quite a distance, “That’s a VW Jetta, it has 2 tail pipes…that’s a Mercedes Benz, it has only one exhaust in the center…” I can tell you that some times I find it very annoying but this time I didn’t. I narrated the cars that were passing me and the number of tail pipes each one had. From our kitchen he then told me a little something about each car.
A silly pointless conversation? No, a bonding time and protection from becoming angry about the wasted time in traffic. I’m thankful for hands-free phones and my son’s willingness to share his love for cars with me.
Musings on Faith and Psychology 