Bumper Stickers

​​How do you feel about bumper stickers? Are they something you own personally? Do you cover your car in them? Have one or a few? If not, do you like reading them? Is there a limit? Are too many too many already?

As I was driving this morning, I was running a little late, and of course, there was a car driving on the highway at a ridiculously slow speed, causing all kinds of insane driver responses of weaving and honking and waggling fingers and, I'm sure, huffing of choice obscenities through clenched teeth, trying, desperately, to go from Point A to Point B without getting into accidents. I was slightly furious: "The left lane is for passing! Move over!" I screamed in my head. At long last, the slow driver put on her blinker and slowly moved to the right lane, and we all got ready to finally pass, making it to our destination a whole minute sooner! 

As I got closer behind the car, I noticed a bumper sticker and around it, smaller, a few others, all related to the same topic, and when I went to pass and make eye contact, the driver was smiling, apparently oblivious, singing whatever was coming from her little Subaru, and for the briefest of moments, I smiled too, and shook my head at myself. Why was I in such a hurry? And I wondered why the driver was so calm and so happy amidst all the aggravated energy. ​ 

It got me thinking about those bumper stickers on her car. I liked them. And that, too, made me smile. "How can I be mad at someone with the same political views and humor as me?" I thought and forgave her on the spot.

But it made me think further: Was there any correlation between her attitude and her bumper stickers? Who puts bumper stickers on their car? ​Do people with bumper stickers plastered on their car actually worry less? Could it be that people who don't take themselves too seriously also put bumper stickers on their car? It's a strange theory and doubt it will hold up if I were to research it, but it did make me wonder: Is it the the carefree, the angry, the passionate, the crazy, or the every man who puts bumper stickers on his/her cars? 

I grew up in a family very anti-bumper stickers. It causes fights. It ruins a piece of property we should take pride in. It will hurt the resale. And more times than not, it's political, and with road rage at an all-time high, do we really want to be espousing our political and religious views driving in a congested city, full of angry, late, and impatient people? Would my smile have turned to something a bit more sinister had the bumper sticker said something that infuriated me or disparaged causes I care about? There is one, in particular, that really bothers me. Living in a primarily liberal state, I imagine it pisses off a few people. So do bumper stickers made sense? Is anyone going to change their minds about ANYTHING from a bumper sticker?

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The government makes lots of laws about driving. Mandatory seatbelts. Speed limits on highways. What we can and can not do while in our own cars (some of which make a helluva lot a sense). Should bumper stickers be put in that category? Are they too distracting, or worse, provokers of anger and road rage? It's their job, isn't it? To get a rise out of someone? A laugh. A clap. A honk of approval. Something to ponder. Think on. Read a few times. And of course, to incite action and in some cases, provoke anger. And to read them takes our attention away from the road, doesn't it? Or are bumper stickers simply an extension, as anything else is, of our personalities just as a t-shirt we wear or sign we put up in our yard or a button on the bag we carry?

​I'm all for free expression, but should bumper stickers be relegated to places where safety and accidents and poor driving won't be compromised? I'm not sure of the answer...but I do know this. Today, I was grateful for one, because it taught me to remember that all the things I needed to get to would still be there when I arrived; and in fact, they are now over. Every moment is that way...so take your time.