The engine putters like my heartbeat after the alarm clock. Muscles and pistons pump blood and oil and the autumn sun paints my car in gold. Yesterday’s problems fog the new day, humid and heavy. They distort traffic lines and blur blinkers. Shifting lanes turns into a chore, I am forced to glance over my shoulder because the defroster hasn’t yet cleared the mirrors. But then something happens between the merges. Something changes. The wheel flows parallel to the yellow lines; it turns and steers on its own. A smile shapes my lips like wet clay. Around the bend, the sun floats into the rear-view, dilates my pupils and illuminates my soul like a silhouette from the 50’s. I am on fire. Alive. Awake. Solarized. I am here and this is the now. Yesterday is gone and there’s nothing I can do about that - a memory that I may or may not learn from. And that’s okay. The vinyl sticks to my palm like electricity, reminding me that I am organic. I am human. I am one organism of many stuck on a giant rock floating in space. I am defined by how I adapt and evolve with the timeline of the universe. My problems and my solutions are what create my present, my past, my future. This is my journey. My fate. It is a fixed destiny, reachable easiest by motor vehicle. I will come and I will go, as will everyone else, whether or not they choose to realize it. Only one thing can fuel me to my own outcome: that is the acceptance of happiness. To be happy is a framework in which I can create, control and destroy. With that power, I can turn the volume to full blast and roll down the windows in I please. It brings me to my now - to my morning commute. I park, smile at the secretary and start a new adventure. It is the only thing anyone can do. Someday you will see that too.
