The SUV in front of me this morning had a license plate frame that said, in a stylistic font reminscent of Old World Celtic wisdom:

ABOVE ALL ELSE
PROTECT YOUR HEART

It reminded me of a poem I’d written in high school, in which the speaker is a mother advising her daughter about life, and it ends with something like “But no matter what, remember to keep a portion of your heart sovereign, or you’ll have nothing left to rebuild yourself with, when he hurts you.” Of course I justified the pessimistic angle by entitling it “From a Cancer Mother to her Daughter”, cuz everyone knows that Cancers have a shell to protect their soft, loving but vulnerable insides. (I’m a Cancer, as is my mother.)

The SUV in front of me did not have the cartoony white stickfigures representing each member of the driver’s family that adorns so many SUVs around here. And it was a BMW. The driver was alone. I don’t know that she’s single, but if she were, could the driver’s motto be the reason that she’s by herself? If she didn’t get married and have 3 kids, she could afford a BMW SUV, right? And what’s that say about me that I’m 30, single, no kids, in a Lexus? Are the two paths in life either fulfillment with family life OR fulfillment with materialism? Are the two typically mutually exclusive? Then where do I fit in? I’m not a particularly materialistic person, but the reason I have the Lexus is because in one emotional weekend, I decided to blow my wedding fund. So for me, I suppose on some level the Lexus is a (poor) compensation for what I really want.