The LandRover 101 Vampire is Sold

Like anything, too much of a good thing can be bad. Even LandRovers.

And yet like children this never seems to make sense until after the deed is done. Until after we’ve eaten the whole thing and become violently, wretchedly ill. I think my experience into 101’s was a bit like this. Something wonderful gone horrible wrong but once you’re your in. Ever eaten a whole pint of Ben and Jerry’s? The last bike never tastes like the first. It was lesson. A Story with a moral.

It’s not that the vehicle was a 101. A 101 is just another LandRover. As I have said before it is the LandRover of LandRovers. It’s that my 101 was my first entrance into big money LandRover collecting. Contrary to appearance, Da and I are not “collectors.” Yes, we own more than a few but really we are addicts with a problem. Each day we spend trying to suppress our compulsions to buy any and all LandRovers with money we don’t have. We are getting better and yet we are never cured. We go for years but then fall off the wagon again. Da is better than I but… but I was going to do it! This time! Own the Expedition LandRover. A great one. The great one but it would cost… And it did.

If I have learned anything about LandRovers since my 1986 introduction its that all LandRovers symbolize a something terrible powerful to their owners. A “dream” burned deep into the cores of their psychics. A dream human compulsions. A dream of adventure. A dream of doing more, being greater, traveling farther etc. The problem is that LandRovers can be a fabulous procrastination tools at this if necessary and especially if the pocket book is light. But money is just an excuse. The 101 taught me that it is not about the vehicle or its worthiness -- it’s about you the owner. It’s about throwing yourself head long into a dream without letting the consequences get you. No compromises and even more importantly no regrets. The Dream must be that important.

But within this, I also learned that unfulfilled dreams are most important. They are necessary and are not something that should be fulfilled at any cost. Sometimes they are better never to be fulfilled at all. The dream is more important than its actual physical completion. As an American, brainwashed by a conception of materialism and manifest destiny, non-productivity as the ultimate goal is a difficult concept to accept. But I am learning. Dreams keep us going, striving, yearning, and that is needed to be alive.