By Rachael
 |
| Saying goodbye to my old companion. |
Last weekend,
I exchanged one set of keys for another and walked away from a companion I’ve
had most of my adult life. I have a new, safer, more spacious vehicle that is
better suited for transporting children and taking family trips. In the
process, I traded in my old sedan I bought 11 years ago, shortly after graduating from college and getting my first real job as a newspaper editor.
I started
waxing sentimental while I cleaned out my car the night before my husband and I
bought the new vehicle. I breathed in the familiar scent of the carpeted seats
and the leather and plastic interior, and memories from the past decade rushed
back. I told my father-in law the next day, while he accompanied my husband and
me at the dealership, that even though I was looking forward to letting go of
my old car, I was a little sad now that the moment had come. My father-in law
nodded in understanding.
“It’s always
hard to give up a car,” he said. “You go through so much with it.”
I spent years
driving my sedan around on newspaper business. As
my paper’s faith editor, I traveled to just about every church in town at some
point, as well as the Islamic center and the Jewish congregation. When
Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ came out, my town’s movie theatre was
delaying showing the movie, so two local pastors and a nun rode with me to a
theatre a few counties over to watch it and participate in an interview. (A
representative from the local Jewish congregation participated in the interview as well,
but he wanted to drive himself.) I did the same thing with a few kids when
Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie came out.
