When I was a young lad, I collected toy cars. Cars of all kinds: hot wheels and later, slot cars that I would race at the local velodrome. Even at the age of two, I remember having a mini dashboard, complete with a steering wheel. I imagined a perilous journey through the streets of Los Angeles, where I grew up.
Indeed, they became even more dangerous when at the ripe old age of 15 -1/2, my dad surprised me with a gift: His 1964 Buick Riviera, 465 Wildcat.
The car I admired for years as a passenger was now mine. And Wow! What a car it was. I blew the doors of Corvettes with that thing.
I don’t know what my Dad was thinking, putting such a force of Nature in my hands. But then again, his first car was a 1941 Cadillac. I’m sure somewhere in the back of his mind, he was trying to ignite in me the same life-long passion for cars that he enjoyed. And indeed he did.
Now and then, when I drive or care for my classic, but practical, baby boomer bomb, a ’98 Toyota 4Runner, I wonder: When did man’s fascination for machines begin?
And as I allow my mind to leap backwards through time, I cannot conceive of any period when men were not trying to harness the power of materials and physics to some advantage.
It’s not beyond the realm of reason to assume that Roman soldiers applied a “spit shine” to their chariots before going into battle. Thereby perhaps blinding their opponents with the glint of shiny metal, just before they met their end.
In fact war, as brutal and unfortunate as it is, has probably been the greatest single driver of ingenuity in the area of machine technology.
Certainly, the first weapon used by early man was a club. With it, he could batter enemies into submission or clobber meat on the hoof to feed the family.
But clubs are short and still require the user to be within striking distance of an opponent or a dangerous animal’s teeth and claws. Enter the first military machine ever invented, the bow and arrow.
With the bow and arrow, a hunter or warrior could deliver a deadly spike into the body of his prey, while remaining at a safe distance. Of course as opposing armies became equally matched, one or the other would have to up the ante to gain yet a greater advantage.
And there in lies the psychological basis for man’s fascination with evolving machines. Especially automobiles.
The constant effort to make cars that would go faster and look better doing it, rapidly expanded automotive technology from the days of the Model T to the current drool-worthy beauty, the Tesla, Model Coupe. Now the fastest production car on the market and remarkably achieving that status using zero gasoline.
But when you strip away all the trappings and technology, all the power and prestige inherent in fine cars, what remains is a human drive to create. A primordial, hardwired aptitude for imagining “a better mousetrap”, as the saying goes.
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As we look throughout history, humanity’s story is replete with examples of men and women who sought ways to solve a problem. Whether that solution improved one life or revolutionized a culture, the creative energy emanated from the same place. A life force that is linked to the Natural world through the power of creation.
To understand man’s fascination with machines and cars, we must first accept that to create something is to imbue that item with a piece of your own spirit, your own life energy.
The more complex the item and the more individuals needed to bring it to life, the greater it’s residual spirit it embodies.
Therefore, when a man climbs into a car, whether he is aware of it or not, the subconscious experience is one of becoming part of a synergistic organism that is greater than the sum of it’s parts. In essence, it is alive.
It is no wonder than that cars have so often been endowed with names inspired by Nature: Impala, Jaguar, Mustang Eagle, Barracuda, Cobra, Cougar, Stingray, Thunderbird and Wildcat, to name but a few. What are animals anyway, but incredibly complex machines?
And if Nature could create machines that were alive, it stands to reason that man would eventually ask, why couldn't he?.
You see, on the deepest subconscious level, when a man, (or a woman for that matter), cares for their car, they are caring for a living, breathing machine. When they wash it before a long trip, they are unwittingly beseeching the spirit of that living entity to deliver themselves and their family safely to their destination.
So the next time you catch your loved one admiring a shiny new vehicle on the street or in a showroom, understand, that what he really sees is, in every sense of the word powerful stallion, beckoning him to meld souls and experience the ride of his life.
Yes, that is why they call it “horsepower”. Can you imagine any word more drenched in testosterone than that?
-Shane Eric Mathias
Author of "The Happiness Tree" and
sole editor of www.happinesstree.org and
Man Up, a guide to masculinity in an age of gender uncertainty.
Also:
Shane's New Blockbuster!
"How To Make Love to a Woman" An essential guide for men and couples interested in heating things up in the bedroom.
•Learn the anatomy of female pleasure.
•How to make her crave your touch
•How to deliver explosive orgasms
"How to Make Love to a Woman".
Now available on Amazon and Smashwords.