[This post is from a series written during the first weeks of the COVID crisis.]
A strange thing has happened to our cars, with COVID.
After more than 135 years of being a conveyance,* our cars are now a habitat.
They are both bubble and bathyscaphe,** from which we now explore the world.
Before, the issue was: how can we escape this necessary mode of transit that gets us from point A to point B?
Can’t we find another way to get around, without the need for fossil fuels?
Can’t we use less energy?
Instead, cars have become the space-lock and rocket-pod between the ensured safety of our homes and the unknown danger of performing essential errands.
They too – in and of themselves – are now our constant ‘destination.‘
We go to the car.
Yes, we take walks, yes, we go to the grocery store and stand in line, yes, we get out of the car to pick up takeout at restaurants.
But, we don’t – GO – anywhere anymore: the car doesn’t – TAKE – us anywhere that, upon arrival, we get to BE – which was the whole point of a trip, before COVID.
It takes us here and there, but we never really leave it.
It is our vital means to weather and explore the new world we are in.
We take our “being inside” with us.
*”History of the automobile,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_automobile
**”Bathyscaphe,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathyscaphe