This is highly recommended, a series where I provide a compelling argument for why you should like something that I like.

Dear Reader,

I used to drive around St. Louis, Missouri in a white 2010 Volkswagen Jetta, which was pretty nice. I know that describing things as “solid” belies a level of detail you’ve come to expect from the highly recommended series, but that’s what this car was -- solid. It felt solid. It worked solid. And I’m pretty sure it’s still solid, even though I sold it. (About once a week, Austin complains that something feels weird about the car. It usually turns out to be a branch that got stuck in the undercarriage, i.e. user error.)

But thanks to our modern economy and technological innovation, not owning a car doesn’t mean that I never get to be in a car. In fact, I’m still in a car at least once a week. Except it’s not the same. And I prefer it that way.

I highly recommend getting driven around.

Why?

Sitting In The Backseat

Have you ever sat in the backseat of your own car? Do really even know what the backseat of a car feels like, especially if you’re one of those assholes who is insistent on calling “SHOTGUN” even though we all stopped doing that when we were 13? The backseat is nice. When you’re there alone, it’s spacious. The backseat is the best place to experience a car ride when you aren’t allowed to drive. (Has anyone ever ordered an Uber and then asked if they could drive? I’m sure the Uber driver would be like “fuck no”, but what if you got a driver that had already experienced a long day of driving people around and wouldn’t mind taking a break? Could it happen? Will I make it happen?)

Not Having To Pay Attention

Part of being in the backseat means you’re away from the action. And that means you’re excused from having to pay attention. Driving requires a lot of fucking attention. (Rightfully so, I guess.) The one time I didn’t pay attention while driving? I broke my pelvis. (I wasn't paying attention because I was asleep.) Every time I haven’t paid attention while in an Uber? I scroll to the bottom of Instagram.

Looking Out The Window

When you don’t have to pay attention, you need something else to do. I’ve already laid out the benefits of scrolling, but let’s not forget that it makes your life a living hell. Getting driven around offers a more suitable alternative: staring at what’s going on outside your window. Much like the timeline, the real world offers a wide variety of things to experience, such as very tall buildings, people walking fast, people walking slow, people yelling at other people, people eating things that they spill all over themselves, people just sitting there with nothing better to do and even other cars. (Let’s not forget about other cars!) Plus, when you look out the window in a forlorn way while listening to the bummer-inducing song of your choice, it feels like you’re in a movie where the main character in struggling to comprehend what to do with the rest of their life while spending too much money on getting driven around in order to create a cinematic moment that could potentially offer more clarity than actually taking some time to think about the future. There’s nothing like it.

Feeling Rich

Getting driven around is a total rich person thing to do. The only time one of the main characters from Succession, HBO’s smash hit of the summer, drives themselves, thing go horribly wrong. (Like dead kid wrong.) But when they lounge and plot and lament in the backseat, they just look rich. I’d like to imagine I do too.

Silence

The subway is many things. But it is most certainly not quiet. And a little bit of quiet while moving from place to place is a luxury I’m willing to pay for. Yes, I can get quiet at home. Or some places in the office. But stationary quiet isn’t the same as moving quiet. Moving quiet seems like it shouldn’t be able to exist. Moving quiet feels like something the natural order would be mad about but you do it anyway because it’s worth it. When the Uber driver has one of those nice cars that shuts out the outside world and then chooses not to speak a single word to me the entire duration of our ride? Worth every penny.

There’s got to be one thing you don’t like about getting driven around.

Not Driving

Listen, driving is pretty fun. And I miss it from time to time. But do I miss it enough to buy a car? No fucking way.

I wonder if I’ll ever forget how to drive. In the year since I’ve last owned a car, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve driven. But it’s got to be like the bike thing, right? If you put me behind a wheel I’ll be able to figure it out? I don’t physically need to drive, but it would just be good to know if I could should the situation arise. Like a situation where I need to break the other side of my pelvis.

love,

nicholas