I took a day off work to go to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit with a couple friends from work earlier this week. This was one of those things you could say is on my “bucket list”. For years I would read about the auto show and look at the cool new cars. So, my expectations were fairly high. Now that I’m back home, I can say that I’m relatively satisfied with the experience. Does it leave me wishing for a couple more zeros on my paycheque? Would I be happier trading in my sedan for something a bit sportier? Do I feel worse about what I drive now?
The reality is that auto shows are about wanting different but not necessarily more. It shifts your perspective from what is sufficient to what is insufficient. Because what I have now is more than sufficient. But somehow my experience morphs what I see into something that doesn’t meet the bill. My expectations scatter and I begin to see things as not quite fulfilling. Don’t get me started on the beautiful models next to the beautiful models (I’ll give you a couple minutes to sort that out). And by the way, I’m not just talking about the macho man view because from what I saw it goes both ways.
What I found ironic was that on the way home, we got stuck on the highway due to a serious accident between a small car and a tractor trailer. It was a good hour of just waiting for the emergency services to help the victim. I think it was a fitting thing to happen; from the excess of the autoshow to caring about nothing but getting past this traffic accident — what really matters? Here’s what I discovered…
These shows are basically the suffix “-er”. Fast-er, modern-er, comfortable-er, prestigious-er… And we’re all sucked into focusing on the “-er” and mis-defining the stuff before the “-er”. It’s like being able to describe that little bit more that’ll satisfy without assessing your current state. Because chances are things are just fine as they are. Adding anything more pushes things out of balance… and that causes more discontent.
