That new-car smell

Breathe deeply the next time you get into a new car. It doesn’t have to be your own and the car doesn’t have to be a specific model. Just take a long slow nose-only breath. Keeping your eyes open is optional (unless you’re currently operating the vehicle). Distinguish (if you can) the scent of polyester, of leather, of plastic, of metal, of gas, of glass, of rubber. And smell (if you can) the manifestation of an idea, of thought made real by the transfer and application of form onto matter. Smell the human ability to create and change both itself and its surroundings. Breathe in that optimism! Imagine (if you can) every atom of the vehicle as it was one thousand years ago deep in the ground as raw material. Imagine their journey through time, their encounters, their stories. Imagine the factories they were produced in, the people working on them, the warehouses they were stored in, the road across which they were hauled. All of these things and more are there in the car with you. Breathe them in. The smell of a new car is perhaps one of greatest stories imaginable.