A Passing appreciation

I was sitting in a Waymo, stopped at a red light, and next to me was this classic red and white car. I couldn’t tell you what kind it was because I know nothing about cars, but it was stunning, so well taken care of, and honestly a work of art.

On the other side of the car there was a guy in some sort of delivery truck with his windows down. He kept looking over at the car, smiling and smiling. Eventually the woman in the passenger seat noticed him and rolled down her window. They started chatting and it was so cute. He told her how beautiful the car was, how well they’d kept it up, how gorgeous it looked. He asked if they had owned it since it was brand new. She laughed and said no, that it was from the year they graduated high school, and then she started telling him a story about how they got it. I think it was a graduation gift, though I couldn’t catch every word.

The light turned green, they waved, and everyone drove off. When I passed the car I finally got a good look at the inside. The interior was just as pristine. Red leather seats, red details on the steering wheel and dashboard, everything shining. And then I saw the couple. They were probably in their seventies or eighties, and they looked gorgeous. Dressed so classy, not pompous, just colorful and elegant in a way that felt so age-appropriate and stylish. Their faces were wrinkled and natural, no sign of surgery or anything pulled or fake, and they just looked like themselves.

The whole thing struck me. It reminded me that even though humans have created so many problematic and harmful things in this world, we have also made some incredible things too. That car was proof of it. A piece of art made and maintained with love, creativity, and care, just for the sake of something beautiful. The owners of the car were art themselves as well. Stunning and beautiful, in the most human way possible.

And then there was that human connection. A tiny moment at a red light, one stranger admiring something another stranger loved, and it turned into a little burst of joy between them. It made me think about how much capacity we have to connect with each other, if we just try.