Friday, January 16, 2009

Magic and Loss


Pictured at left is a 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2800.  This was the scrumptiously styled saloon car based on the fantastically successful Vittorio Jano designed track car.  These cars were pretty magical at their time of introduction, resplendent with the latest in innovation and styling, just a half step away from their race track brethren.  Even the exhaust manifold was art, sculpted with delicate fins so as to help keep the exhaust temperatures cool.  Such a car is not possible today.

And now these cars, of which only a few survive, are either museum pieces or a billionaire's bauble, tucked away in atmospherically controlled garages and far away from the thronging crowds and excitement of yesteryear's race course.  There's a bit of loss there, methinks.

And so it goes with our lives.  I see it with my child, that she has started out with such unabashed enthusiasm and delight in the magnificent and the mundane.  She loves her dollies to bits just as much as she loves unravelling the toilet paper roll.  She says "noshanks" to pieces of broccoli as enthusiastically as she slurps butter off of her toast.  She does not walk, but runs excitedly everywhere.

And I know that she will progress, grow and continue to experience the many delights as well as a few of the heartbreaks of a lifetime. Friends will come and go, success and failure visiting regularly and hope and faith will have to be constantly nurtured amidst growing older and hopefully wiser.  Slowly, a life of active track time will turn towards the stillness and quietude of the museum.

Guess I'd better get out of my own museum, back onto the track and back to oiling her wheels and greasing her enthusiasm for her own next few go-rounds anyways.

Its a good life, always filled with a bit of magic and loss.  Thanks Lou Reed, for the words and inspiration here.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Snow: good for kids, bad for Italian cars.



At less than three feet tall, my little girl loves to let herself fall into the snow outside.  Hasn't quite grasped the idea of snow angels yet.

And with less than 6 inches of ground clearance, my Italian car is just not getting out into the rutty roads created by the big snowfall.  Haven't seen anyone else's out either.  Imagine that.