The Garage / Gateway to Hell...

The Garage...



If you know me, you have probably heard me rant about this before. If not, fasten your seatbelts. If there is one thing that highlights the downfall of the American society and ideal it has to be the garage. This may sound stupid, but follow me here folks.

Once upon a time in the old / perfect days. We didn’t have them. If we did, they were in the back of the house, detached and hidden from the street. It was where you put your vehicle to keep it from getting dirty or stolen because it was an investment. In the front of the house was this thing called a porch, where people would sit and watch the world go by or cool off on a hot day because there was no air conditioning. You would wave to your neighbor, watch your kids play in the yard and generally admire your handy work as a gardener or landscaper.

Fast forward to the wonderful 21 century. The garage is now the ‘center’ of the house. It is often the only thing visible form the street and is the major in / out corridor to your living space. Gone are the porches, yards, kids and community of the past. Basically, the garage door is the gateway to your ‘bunker’ and you always keep it closed, unless you are coming or going.

But wait, this is not the reason for the downfall. This is just the pre-amble. It is the ‘use’ of the garage that really shows me the level of sickness of today’s society. They are no longer used to store the family vehicle. They are used to store ‘stuff’. All that crap that we consumer obsessed American collect that is in effect, worthless...but we just can’t part with it. Where does it go? In the garage. Where does the car go? In the driveway, or in the street, or more often than no, in the front yard up on blocks. We have all heard the storey. Someday you are going to get it running and take that road trip, when you can clear out the garage and pull the engine right.

I have taken walks in the evening through my middle class neighborhood and been amazed at the number of cars on the street and in driveways. There seemed to be hundreds. I counted on average about 4 per house. (One for Mom, one for dad, one for Junior, and one for a project). None of them were in the garage. After looking into the few garages that had their doors opened, I figured out why. They were stuffed to the rafters with junk... treadmills, work benches, televisions, the kids bikes (last ridden in the 80s), endless cardboard boxes holding stuffed animals and baby cribs never to be used again, but that have sooo much sentimental value.

This is the end chapter in the great American capitalistic saga. We are approaching the time when our homes are basically landfills and we each have our own private dump. It call became clear on my late night walks through my neighborhood, when I realized how much nicer of a place it would be if all the damn cars weren’t parked all over the place. It would be a side boulevard with sidewalks and trees, not a used car lot that surrounds my home for miles in ever direction.

So here is your challenge folks. Get rid of it all. Empty the garage, haul away the cars, get some lawn chairs and sit in your rage with the door open. You might be surprised. When you relieve yourself of the burden that society has told you, you just HAVE to have, it is a liberating experience, although you have to go through withdrawal to get to it. Throw away the television, throw away your junk, go back to school just to meet and interact with people, live IN your world, don’t just hide from it in your bunker full of hoarded stuff.