Bumper stickers

I have bumper stickers on my car. I have never considered myself a bumper sticker person; it was a side effect of being practical.

When my little Toyota Yaris was totaled, I was rather freaked out, so I decided we needed a BIG car. I couldn't do an SUV or truck, however, as I wanted something at least slightly fuel-efficient. I also figured that with super tall kids, it made sense to have something with room. So we decided on a minivan. Nice and practical.

(I have never considered myself a minivan person either. Am I in denial or in disguise?)

Except that every third person around here owns a gray minvan. Every time I went to pick up the kids from school, I'd watch them walking slowly down the line of minivans, peering in each window to see which one had me in it.

Thus, the bumper stickers. I got four and put them on the car just below the window, which makes for great line of sight. They are:

- Be the change you wish to see in the world
- Live simply so others can simply live
- There is not a blue America and a red America, there is the United States of America
- Well-behaved women seldom make history

I chose these particular bumper stickers because I liked them but also because they are fairly innocuous. They might identify me as left of center, but none of them are particulary super-political.

A few weeks ago, I was at school, and when I got back to my car, there was a note on my windshield.

It says, "COMRADE - You rock. love from the owner of the gray Odyssey you parked in front of."

Only in the midwest would such innocuous bumper stickers earn one the socialist appellation "Comrade." (Not that I mind. My views on food availability alone probably make me a socialist.)