A dream deferred.

I really shouldn't abuse the record of serious experiences that give rise to good poetry by comparing them to trivial things like that which follows, but this month, I've gotten to do something that I've wanted to do since childhood, something that I'd almost given up on. I have the opportunity to build a pinewood derby car. Pinewood derby cars are blocks of wood that contestants carve and paint to resemble cars, usually race cars. Contestants compete by rolling them down a wooden track. The cars are powered solely by gravity, kind of like small soap box derby cars. Boy Scouts and other kids' clubs hold annual races, and some of the competition can get quite fierce.

When I was a kid, only the boys got to build pinewood derby cars. The kids at my churches went either to Cadets (Calvinist Cadet Corp) or G.E.M.S. (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Savior/ Calvinettes). The Cadets got to make pinewood derby cars. The Calvinettes got to decorate cakes and learn things like counted cross-stitch, an activity I abhor to this day. I never quite forgave the Cadets for learning to make derby cars and operate saws and tie cool knots.

It just didn't seem fair. But my current church takes a more liberated view. Both the boys and the girls get to participate in the pinewood derby event. And this year, so do the adults. My pastor overheard me griping (note to self: don't gripe around the pastor; he might take steps to rectify the situation, and then you have to do something. ) that I'd never been allowed to make a car, so he said, "Why don't you make a car?" So now I'm making a pinewood derby car. My car is modeled on my real car. I designed it and cut it out myself. It's big and boxy and painted gold. I don't really have a convertible, as shown above, but I had to make this car a convertible because it already had part of it removed. You can see the seat and the soft top and the inside of the windshield from this angle. I haven't put in the details yet. Those will come later when I have more colors of paint. Wheels and axels will be stuck in those little slots that you can barely see, and it will fly down the course. At least I hope it will. I'll post pictures of the completed car before the competition.