Put Your Trust in a... Lamborghini?

(originally posted September 17, 2014)

Went to pick up my oldest on a regular school day.
A Tuesday, actually.
An ordinary day.
When the kid came to the car, he said, "Did you see that?"
"See what?"
"That car!  It's a Lamborghini."
Ah, a couple lanes over is a flashy orangish thing.
"It's really cool.  The doors go up."
"Someone's dad came to pick him up.  He is an eighth grader."
"Do you know him?"
"No."  "Everyone is taking pictures."
"Oh, okay.  Let me take one."
The car started to move out of a lane of parked cars.
Got one, got two shots of the moving car.
"Mom, can you go behind him?'
"What!  I can't!  This lane has to turn left."
In my mind I wondered about the person driving the Lamborghini.
So he just sat there while the rest of the student body took pictures?
How weird.
It was also weird to see the car move.
As in, someone is really driving that thing.

On the way home, my oldest asked if we could afford the car.
"Umm, maybe like if we don't eat?"
He went home and looked up the model and the price.
He said if there is a burglary, the burglar probably will go to the person with the Lamborghini.
I said I'm sure they will have good security system.
The burglar will probably rob people like us first, and leave the rich alone.
Do I sound bitter?

My middle child did not see the car because he had after school activity.
When I told him about the sports car, he asked why drive it to school?
Was it to show off?
My sensible kid.

I felt the same way, dismissing it at first,
thinking it's nothing but a no brain parent, trying to show off.

Then it started to wear on me.
I suddenly noticed how unhappy I have become the day after.
While I may have said something like who cares about a Lamborghini,
deep down inside I started to wonder what it must have been like,
to have that much money to be able to afford a fancy exotic car like that,
and more.
We are not poor, but in the face of a Lamborghini,
I realize how poor I have suddenly become.
Because we cannot afford to have one,
because we don't have the freedom to just go and buy one,
I felt unhappy, and I felt inferior.

It's ludicrous, I know.
I know in my mind, some people's sense of self worth is entirely tied up with money.
So when they lose it, it is even more catastrophic.
I also know there are things more profound than money, there are things more lasting than wealth.
But I also know the feelings of worry,
about keeping a job and having enough money to feed the family.
In the Lamborghini I see stability, I see money, and it says worry is nonexistent.
Wouldn't that be nice?

Of course that kind of scenario will never happen, even if we are to own a Lamborghni.
But that's the kind of appeal that the car had on me.
Thank God it was just a moment.
Two day, but still just a moment in the whole schema of things.