The most unexpected upgrade a.k.a. more fun in Subarus

I typically rent the cheapest class of car possible when I travel. When I travel alone on business, I really couldn’t care if I drive a Kia or a Jag. I stepped to the Columbus Hertz desk this Monday and I was a bit beside myself when the agent handed me the keys.

A Subaru. In fact, a Subaru Forrester S.

Yes, for IGSMTOMM faithful, it was the same car that I crashed on Christmas with my son in it. I thought it was the damndest thing.

Was it that improbable? I mean, I have been upgraded dozens of times before and haven’t thought anything of it. Why was this time different?

I don’t believe in fate, and lean closer to the free will side of the world. But there I stood standing like Earl Hickey, asking karma why she would do such a thing?

I got in the car and drove to my friend Andy’s house tentatively at first. I gingerly steered and accelerated the car around I-670 until I built faith again. Faith in the car. Faith in my driving. The car is fun. I got back on the proverbial horse. Lesson learned.

Do I believe that this was karma? No.

What I do believe is something that I am thinking of as philosophical or spiritual appetite. I think my mind, spirit, (whatever) just knew what it needed. It needed to find a symbol for a lesson. If it wasn’t going to be the Subaru in Columbus, it was going to be my friend Steve who blacked out during a skiing accident and got back up the mountain the next day. If not that, then something else.

I call it “spiritual appetite” because of my father-in-law. He was watching me feed Sean unsuccessfully this past weekend. He knows that Sean’s lack of appetite stresses me out, and just said to me:

“Relax. His body will tell him what he needs, and when he is ready to eat.”

While I haven’t bought into that theory totally yet for Sean, I did think that this had some application to the ideas of karma and randomness. The spiritual and philosophical fuel is all around you, it just requires the right time to set the table ...

... And eat.