On Driving
Or, how to find your place in the world
I have a confession to make.
Last month, I went and did something.
Not entirely on purpose… sort of.
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Traveling Companions
I’ve been lucky in my life to drive and own a variety of vehicles.
My first was a 2001 Honda Shadow, and I rode the hell out of it while living in California.
I’d take it on weekend runs from Berkeley to Los Angeles and back again—often the long way home up Highway 1.
Trust me: it’s one of America’s great highways, and everyone should experience it at least once.
To be honest, some rides were downright miserable—especially the winter I summited the Grapevine Pass in light snow.
It was cold, treacherous, and unforgettable.
In the years since, I’ve tried many times to recreate this mix of challenge and exhilaration.
Only one other vehicle has ever come close—a Jeep.
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Childhood Memories
When I was a boy in Oregon, it felt like another world compared to my home in Panama.
Oregon was wild.
Greener than any green you can imagine.
Wetter than most places.
When Mt. St. Helens erupted, I collected ash from the streets and kept it for years—until it was lost to time.
But what I remember most is the sense of a big, adventurous world, often experienced through television.
Back then, it seemed every major TV show had a vehicle as a secondary, if not primary, character:
• The wickedly cool helicopter from Airwolf
• The General Lee from The Dukes of Hazzard
• The GMC Vandura from The A-Team
• The ’76 Gran Torino from Starsky & Hutch
• The Kawasaki motorcycles from CHiPs
• K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider (and his evil twin, K.A.R.R.)
• And yes—the CJ-5 from Mork & Mindy
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Smiling Faces
More than any other, that CJ-5 from Mork & Mindy stood out to me.
No doors.
No top.
The polar opposite of our family station wagon with faux wood side panels.
Robin Williams could sit upside down in it, legs dangling over the crossbar—outside the actual Jeep!
Maybe it was just the smile on Pam Dawber’s face as she drove it.
Or, maybe it was the freedom it represented.
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The Importance of Fun
A colleague of mine recently said that driving her Jeep “is like driving one big go-kart. It’s the best feeling ever…”
Recently, I’ve recaptured this feeling for myself.
Owning a Jeep again has reminded me of something important—life should be enjoyed.
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The Drive Itself
One of the first ways I learned to enjoy life was in a car—though I was always a passenger.
We didn’t have much growing up in western Oregon.
No big vacations.
No famous destinations.
But my stepdad had a gift for packing up the family and heading out, often on a whim.
Some weekends we had a destination—like the Oregon Coast, where we’d play on the beach, eat saltwater taffy, and devour corndogs on a stick.
Other weekends, the drive was the destination.
I’d sit in the backseat, usually with a book in hand, while the miles rolled by. Sometimes I’d fall asleep to the hum of the tires.
And this is what I remember most: the fun that comes with adventure, even without a specific place in mind.
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As Seneca said, “Traveling abroad won’t make a man better or free him from his faults; it will not remove his desires or his fears. A change of place does not change the mind.”
Yet maybe—just maybe—travel can spark new and better actions in our lives.
It can help us discover not only the world around us, but also our place in it.
It did for a young immigrant boy like me.
And perhaps it can do the same for you.