Diary of Mechanical Benediction

Photograph Source: Jitze Couperus – CC BY 2.0

When I was a child, the world felt vast enough to resist you. Things didn’t always work because you needed them to, and sometimes they refused. I caught the tail end of this with occasional cars needing coaxed back to life with a metal crank. I’d watch disgruntled men—middle-aged, I suppose, though at that time ancient—puff and swear as they cranked the engine over. A mechanical benediction before the joy. If it didn’t catch, you were stranded.