I often stare at people as they peek through window displays. Children look at them with their eyes full of future. They dream of imaginary adventures as they stare. The elder, on the contrary, look at them with nostalgia. They’ve seen it all. Regardless of age group, objects have the power to transport us to another place. They make us dream.
The relationship we have with them is quite intimate. We all have one or two things that we value more than anything. Usually its never the things we buy for ourselves, but gifts full of memories.
For me one of those objects is my first car: A convertible 1960 Karmann Ghia.
My dad bought it in the worst condition you could possibly imagine, and rebuilt it finding each and every piece in different parts of the world. It took him about 8 years to finish it. I remember when he first bought it home. I was 4 years old.When he turned it on for the first time, before he fixed it, I was standing behind it and the muffler burned the back of my leg. That was the beginning of our love relationship, and I still have a big scar… just like I do from all the people I’ve really loved.
Driving it is quite an experience. It’s smells like gas and accumulated years. The wheel is hard as can be, and of course, so is the stick. It took me so much time to learn to drive it properly and ‘listen’ to it.
Its history is quite remarkable. Engineered and built in Germany, yet designed in Italy by Fredinard Porche at the end of World War II at the time when Europe was trying to regain faith and smiles after those terrible years, at a time when Volkswagen was synonymous with Adolf Hitler.
Experiencing, and taming him has defined a big part of my personality… and why wouldn’t it? It marked that period of my life. As I drove it in my last visit to Mexico, I couldn’t stop thinking of how everything we own owns us to a certain degree.
Whenever you share a picture of yourself a million messages are being identified. Make sure they are the right ones, and the brands you relate yourself with are a fit according to your roots and the persona you are trying to portray.
Social media is the biggest window display ever. The medium has never been the message more clearly than it is today, and you are having an impact.
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