It's Just a Car, Lady

Saturday I was reminded that there are some people who just don't get it.

We loaned our mini-van to a friend. Their son had a birthday party, and we thought it would be more convenient for them to be able to drive all the children (including my two sons) in one vehicle. As our friend was pulling into a parking place at a local eatery, she dinged the SUV that was parked next to her. As misfortune would have it, the SUV was a Mercedes. No big deal. Just exchange insurance information and move on, right?

Wrong.

An over-exercised woman verbally assaulted my friend. "How could you be so f------ stupid?! Where did you learn to f------ park?! You're a f------ idiot!" Of course my friend burst into tears and before long the irate woman was trying to apologize for her inexcusable behavior and console the very person she had just attacked .

I met the Mercedes owner today to make sure she had all the insurance information she needed. She was . . . difficult.

She reminded me that there are always going to be some folks who love things and use people. Now my friend, she loves people and uses things. She gets it. That is why she can borrow or loan a car. It is why she is pretty much universally loved. But the over-tanned, shrill-voiced, I-drive-a-Mercedes-so-I-am-better-than-you person I met today - she doesn't get it, and I'm guessing she never will. She kept talking about her car as "her baby," and "her ride." She has personified an object.

The problem with such behavior, of course, is that personifying objects is usually accompanied by objectifying persons. That is what, I am afraid, Mercedes woman has done, who she has become. And, Frankly Speaking, that is very, very sad.