Passion, Experience & Growth

Why Trucks?

January 17, 2021

I have always loved vehicles of all sorts—cars, trucks, tractors, trains, and airplanes: the real thing, models, toys, magazines, and books. But… Why?

There is something extraordinary about vehicles. Even as a child, before I understood their mechanics, I could recognize the truths they embodied—their form, color, and, most of all, their function. Each vehicle has a purpose, and reveals an aspect of our physical reality through that purpose.

Some trucks are built to construct, others to demolish. Many exist simply to move or transport. Each purpose implies a function that holds value.

Trucks also exemplify the power of leverage, magnifying human capability to titanic proportions. I experienced this firsthand during my first helicopter ride at Happy Valley Park in Alberta; with the control yoke, we soared higher and lower—I was in control! (Remember, from the introduction, that I was just 14 months old when I had this experience.)

This same truth is evident in the machines illustrated in the children’s books I loved: they are tools. Technically speaking, they are “complex machines”—a machine composed of many “simple machines.” Fundamentally, machines are designed to do work.

The work, function, purpose, and value are intimately interrelated, evident in the form of every vehicle. With just a glance, the truth was obvious—to me at least.

To me as a child, trucks—and every vehicle I encountered—were pure magic. They were machines with purpose, revealing the hidden forces of the world.