Roger,
you have a good point and it did make me think for a minute.
I think the difference between an MG and a Honda for example is
somewhat like the difference between a piano and a player-piano.
You turn on a player-piano and it plays. For the most part it
also sounds pretty good. Even I can make a player-piano sound
pretty good. It takes no skill, no thought, no challange, no
work and no spirit to play a player-piano.
A few years ago my oldest daughter started taking piano
lessons. The work, frustration, practice, anger was amazing.
After a few years I went to her piano recital. I did not hear
a player-piano. What I heard was a human spirit placed to music.
It was as though all of that human frustration and effort blossomed.
The music was certainly not as complicated as what I usually hehear
on a player-piano but her music had emotion in it.
My daughter drove me to work this morning in the Honda. It is a
player-piano. It is so smooth. After 158,000 miles the speedometer
doesn't work and the turnsignal light is out. It is a nice car. There
is no spirit.
The other night my wife and I took the MGA up Rt324 through the
town square at Lawrenceville and straight on toward Brazelton. The road
was flat, curvey, and deserted at 10:00 at night. There was a giant full
moon, the smell of drying hay, and a cool breeze. The car was amazing.
The low frequency hum of the engine seem to fill the countryside.
There is a lot of work, frustration, and effort in that car....and spirit.
Don Mathis
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