Homo Faber
A fall Saturday is overcast. I plan to make my way to the drag strip perhaps for a last hurrah. There’s a chill in the air. Soon time will be past for “test and tune” of race cars, hand-built expressions of the personality of an owner, and that of crew members, who are likely related by blood and ties of friendship. Drag racing is a time bound process, an activity requiring mild weather, ideal for days of cool air and sun warmed asphalt. Each race car is one-of-a-kind construction. Months of labor, taking to hand the welding of steel, the fitting of parts, and that of a delicate trial and error effort to tune for power, for efficient transfer through the drive train to the big Hoosier slicks and finally to the asphalt track.
Everything comes together at the track. Driver and crew place their bet at the starting line, to win or lose…
With good fortune I will be present, to hear the loping idle of a big block alcohol motor warming up, to observe the heart stopping burnout, smoke billowing while a car thunders from the starting line to about the 60 foot mark. The driver wrestles to keep the car straight as the force of torque twists the car rightward… With careful staging at the starting line, the preliminary “show” is over. What matters, the only thing, is to “cut” the green starting light, and to keep to the center of the lane until the timing lights are reached at the finish line. I know that all of this is just a few heart beats, — but in truth a lifetime of dedication is compressed into those seconds.
Many times I wonder — what is this that I am seeing? How ephemeral the manifestation of homo sapiens melding with our works, our machines? All of this takes on the aura of mystery, This is something no one fully understands, to which we feel obligated to return as long as the days are mild and the asphalt is warm…
Homo Faber: Coined by Appius Claudius Caecus, who formulated its meaning in the sentence ‘Homo faber suae quisque fortunae’ (Every human is the maker of his or her destiny)
