Thanksgiving is a time to recognize and be thankful for all that is good in our lives, which includes being thankful for all of the things that can make our lives a lot easier. Often times, we overlook the things of convenience, like running water, paved roads, and especially cars! During the year, it’s easy to take our many blessings for granted and get caught up in everyday life. The cars we depend on take us where we want to and need to go. 100 years ago, many people would have loved to have the shelter and warmth of the current day car
Thanksgiving is a time to stop and appreciate everything that we have. But how many of us are truly thankful for our cars? We think of cars as a necessary purchase. Even if you’ve got a beater with a heater, it can get you to wherever you need to go, keep you warm and dry, and is something that memories can be made with.
Most of us spend a lot of time in our cars and a lot of us name our cars and assign them a gender. We use them to drop our kids off at school, get us to work and back, and take us to celebrate Thanksgiving with family.
Many of us have our daily routine depends on a car in some way, shape, or form, whether it be new or used, gas-dependent or electric, Lyft or Uber, or a taxi. So, this Thanksgiving, let’s take a moment to appreciate the everyday car that our great grandparents would have LOVED to have.
Just the convenience factor in itself is huge. They take us long distances that we could never travel by foot or bicycle. Our cars are fast when we need to get to the office in a hurry, have cup-holders so we can caffeinate on the way to work, and have enough space for groceries and all the soccer/football/dance/hockey gear it can hold. We cool and heat them in the elements and play music or our favorite podcasts by pressing a button. When it rains or snows, we have windshield wipers to clear away the drops, and defoggers to help us remove the fog and condensation on our windows. There are even special snow tires to help us drive in ice and snow that help keep us safe. Being thankful for our cars means we can come and go as we please, just by getting behind the wheel, often times in comfort and style.
If you own a car, you never have to depend on others to help you get where you need or want to go. For people with mobility issue, having a car means not having to ask for help, and being able to carry one where they need to go. Whether or not we have a disability, we need to appreciate the way cars give us the gift of independence.
Also, recognizing the gifts of the summer road trips, taking the day off and driving to the beach, the leaves changing and being able to witness it while behind the wheel, or a good song with a cup of coffee on a cruise with a friend. Our cars give us the freedom to travel to national parks, family that lives in a different city, nights out with friends, and bringing those precious babies home from the hospital for the first time. With wheels under our feet, we are free to go anyplace we want, traveling from place to place without even breaking a sweat.
These reasons and many more are reason enough to be grateful for cars in general, but especially the ones we own. So, as you look around you at the Thanksgiving table, take stock: the turkey didn’t fly there, the cranberry sauce didn’t magically appear, the potatoes didn’t mash themselves, and you didn’t get there by happenstance. You all got to where you are that day with the help of a car.
This Thanksgiving we have many reasons to be thankful, let’s take some inventory and not forget to be thankful for our cars.