A Reading of About ZEN in the CAR
ZenintheCar.com, what a stupid name for a website. I mean what does it even mean? More likely than not people will probably mispronounce it anyway. Instead of actually reading it out like ZEN IN THE CAR DOT COM they would probably rush through it like they do through everything in this fast paced, internet age and read something like ZENITH CAR. Who needs an E anyway, right? Even if they pronounce it right; still doesn’t make much sense though. I mean, zen in the car? Have the people behind this ever been through Atlanta traffic in the spaghetti or sliding around corners in Birmingham regardless of how good the tread on their tires are? I wonder how Buddhist they felt in the mountains of Tennessee when they couldn’t get a signal and their favorite music playing thingy wouldn’t pull up the next Radiohead song, just kept buffering and buffering and buffering nearly all the way to Illinois? I bet when the clowns that came up with such a stupid name for a website got out near Route 66 speeding through the Mojave, dodging potholes like the Millennium Falcon would asteroids, they didn’t feel all peaceful and ohm and whatnot. There’s no way the stress, strains, pains and groans of a never-ending highway would ever let them maintain some utterly futile attempt at maintaining a state of calm, coolness while steering their proverbial car home. ZenintheCar.com, such a stupid name for a website.
Then again, could it be that the state of Zen isn’t something understood, attained and maintained on a straight and uneventful road free from hazards, detours and creepy signs with Cthulhu on them out in the middle of New Mexico? Could it be that Zen is best harnessed after being forced to go down some perilous paths and face the fears of what could be behind every mountain pass or strange creature could dart out in front of dim headlights on a dark night? Maybe Zen isn’t some pie and the sky notion that one stays in a perpetually peaceful place at all times without flinching at pain or wincing at despair. Could it be that Zen is something more akin to, despite the odds and despite the terror of the unknown, venturing out anyway from comfort zones and suburb homes to see what’s out there at the risk of personal peace. Don’t some call this faith? When they set their GPS back home, isn’t this called hope?
Surely if one takes up the Hero’s call to adventure on the open road in our modern times they are bound to get some dents, some dings, some cracks to the windshield and maybe the occasional blowout. When these things happen, the fellow traveler might be tempted to curse at the heavens with an upturned fist as the other cars on the highway zip past them without an apparent care in the world. Its not uncommon for hiccups along the way to cast a long shadow on the road, but one thing is for sure; the journey does indeed go on. Somehow or another, regardless of the condition of the driver or the ditch they may hit; there is always more miles to go and those miles are always got. Be it with the help of road-side assistance or sometimes by the help of a friend willing to give you a tow. Either way, there should be an indicator on the dashboard that reads in bright, neon green “Don’t Panic! Don’t Freak Out! Don’t Lose Your Cool! You are on your way home!” Sure, it may take a little longer than you planned. It may cost you more than you bargained for. It may require some repairs or in some cases a brand new ride but like it or not; we always get where we are heading.
ZenintheCar.com, what a clever name for a website. After all a vehicle of some sort is where we find ourselves most of the time in a state of Zen in our modern times. It’s our own little cave of Enlightenment where we can fiddle the dials, mess with the temperature, sing as loud as we want to all the guilty pleasures we please and for better or worse; it is the one place where we can take a firm grip on the wheel. So who really cares how speed freaks pronounce it or understand it so long as the fellow travelers that do know where to find it. After all, in this internet saturated society does anyone’s website name match the content thereon anymore, anyway? Of course not, and why should ZenintheCar.com be any different? Perhaps sometimes it is okay to be on a path, with a certain playlist intended, only to get a few miles down the road and freak out when you accidently hit shuffle and the entire ride changes. Zen is indeed not always being in a state of peace and ohm and whatnot. Rather it is about starting there, losing it, then finding your way back. Now that its thought about; ZenintheCar.com, such a clever name for a website.
