Brehm Center

What is it about guys and cars?  My dad (Cathy’s) had a ’62 Volkswagen bug he loved so much that he made our family of five travel in it for one family vacation (we were very small and the trip wasn’t cross-country, or we would have killed each other!).  When we were older my mom had a used ’68 Chevrolet Impala and my brother loved it. By the time he had graduated from high school in the late 70’s we had seen a whole showroom of cars in our driveway. All were junkers that my brother lovingly and painstakingly nursed back to health and beauty, including a ’34 Ford Coupe, a ’61 Chevrolet Belair, a ’64 Pontiac GTO and a ’49 Chrysler New Yorker, which he still owns.   

Not all our neighbors were as thrilled with the cars as my brother, but my parents didn’t mind. They knew that through these cars my brother was not only learning a skill (to this day most of the family calls my brother to fix anything mechanical or electrical); he was learning what it meant to be disciplined and committed to an ongoing project.  He learned to save money in order to buy parts, and he learned to ask others for help.  Older mechanics from the service station where my brother worked in the summers would give him ideas of how to fix his cars, or pass by the house to take a look at his work. Those cars were more than old vehicles, though they did help him take a journey.

Something similar happened when John Lasseter teamed with Joe Ranft and a host of other talented animators to create the movie Cars.  This “car”-toon is much more than a cartoon for kids, as any Pixar fan should know by now. All of the Pixar films combine artful state-of-the-art animation with good stories, clever humor, and life lessons. The pearls on the string of Pixar “hits”--Toy Story (1995), A Bug’s Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), and The Incredibles (2004)--are all worth viewing by young and old alike.  Sure everyone has a favorite, even the critics. Some have called Cars Pixar’s greatest achievement, while others have called it their worst effort (but even those critics admit that every other animation studio only wishes they could make such a “clunker”).

What is more to the point is how the film causes the viewer to stop and consider some very important correctives to life in the “fast lane.” You see, Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson) is a self-absorbed, rookie racing car who can only think of winning the Piston Cup Championship. He’s so enamored with his own abilities he won’t listen to others, let alone work with them to accomplish his goal. Experienced winning race cars try to tell him that there is more to racing than winning, but he’s not interested. As he drives across country to the championship race he gets lost and winds up in the small town of Radiator Springs. There he’s arrested for speeding by the Sheriff—a 1949 Mercury Police Cruiser (voiced by Michael Wallis) and sentenced to community service by Doc Hudson, a 1951 Hudson Hornet (voiced by Paul Newman). He must use all his horsepower to pull an asphalt machine that will repave the main street of the town. Lightning can’t believe he’s stuck with a bunch of has-beens when he should be preparing himself for his big race (and eventual stardom!).

Little does Lightning know, but this sojourn among some past-their-prime cars will actually prepare him well, not only for the race, but for life.  Doc Hudson teaches him to “steer left to go right” when he’s approaching the curves of any track. Sally Carrera, a 2002 Porsche 911 (voiced by Bonnie Hunt) tells him that her life turned around when she broke down in Radiator Springs and realized, “You have to be broken to be fixed.” Or Mater, the tow truck (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy) teaches Lighting how to tip dozing tractors, drive backwards, go slow, and to have a best friend. A host of others: a 1959 Impala (Cheech Marin), an Italian Fiat (Tony Shalhoub), a hippie 1960 VW bus (George Carlin), a World War II jeep (Paul Dooley) and Flo, a 1950’s model with attitude (Jenifer Lewis) soon become Lightning’s family, rust and all. In getting “lost” Lightening is found as he learns to care about others.

While Lightning is on this “road trip”, viewers are also encouraged to reflect on the pace of their own lives. At one point Sally shows Lightning the open roads outside of town. She encourages him to go slow and enjoy the scenery. Lamenting the fact that Radiator Springs and its surrounding beauty is missed by most people because the interstate highway bypassed the town, she says, “Forty years ago, it wasn’t about making great time, it was about having a great time…The road moved through the land; it didn’t cut through it.”  

Given our competitive (The Apprentice, Survivor) and hectic (Blackberrys, fast-food, and high-speed internet) world, Cars challenges us to “slow down” or maybe even “pull off” to appreciate each other and God’s creation.  We and our kids need to hear such words.  But even sweeter words were penned by the medieval philosopher Anselm of Canterbury as he beckons us all to rest in the Creator:

“Come now, turn aside. Turn aside for a while from your daily employment, escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside your weighty cares, let your burdensome distractions wait, free yourself awhile for God, and rest awhile in Him.