Counting Blue Cars or We are 138

 Cruising down I-87 southbound on a beautiful day, I'm enjoying the perfect temperatures we've been fortunate enough to be experiencing this past week in the Hudson Valley. Ever a vigilant rider, I take in my surroundings and a full stock of all the other vehicles traveling up and down the Thruway. The trailers, the lead foots, the texters and even the other bikes taking advantage of the weather. It isn't long before I begin to take notice of all the other Road Glides out there. It works like that. First, you notice all the other bikes, then you notice all the other Harleys, then the other Road Glides. I've done the same thing with every vehicle I've owned. You never notice how often something occurs when it's lost in the sauce of everyday life until you really start paying attention.

For instance, I never realized how many potholes were in the left lane on this particular stretch of the Thruway. Now that I've just left the fifteen mile stretch of freshly paved, smooth, black asphalt, I am very, very aware of how badly this current stretch needs to be resurfaced. 

This is how we shape our view of the world. If we are only looking for the pot holes, it is all we are going to see. We do the same with the people around us. We start to notice and focus on the times that people treat us poorly or treat someone else unfairly. Even if it's one out of every 100 interactions, we may start to perceive that it is happening all the time. Good for awareness and survival, sure, but not so good when we begin to miss the ninety-nine other interactions when people are treating us kindly and treating each other with respect and dignity. Seeing only the pot holes can jade a person's worldview entirely. 

This becomes our truth for whatever we want it to be. Whether it is seers attributing signs to a higher power, numerologists looking for their lucky numbers, or readers of the zodiac looking for something to qualify their beliefs. Once we start to pay attention to something specific, it becomes the very thing which we always see and the more we see it, the more our world views become solidified. Kind of dangerous when our social media news feeds are tailored to our preferences.

Back in the 90s, there was a song called "Counting Blue Cars". Despite this song not being on my playlist, it's something that I think about in moments like this. Once you start to count the blue cars, you become painfully aware of just how many blue cars there are. Try it yourself sometime. Count the blue cars, or the green ones, or the signs from God in the form of yellow bumper stickers. You'll start to notice that they are absolutely everywhere. Now pick something else. You might notice that you begin to see whatever it is that you focus on.

I had someone tell me, once upon a time, that we each had important numbers that were a higher power's way of trying to tell us something. As a Misfits fan, I decided to start paying attention to the number 138. Wouldn't you know it, I started to see the number everywhere. I always seemed to glance at the clock at 1:38. It became my change from the register, it was embedded in a serial number, in street addresses, phone numbers: it was just everywhere! 

So here I am, cruising northbound on my Road Glide and feeling much more like a conformist than a unique little snowflake like myself should. Aw hell, that isn't what matters here. What matters is my ass is in the saddle, I'm enjoying the wind, dodging the potholes and finally remembering that life is whatever you make of it, and we see whatever it is we want to see. So choose wisely.