"Nobody with a Good Car Needs Religion"

So says Hazel Motes, the holy fool of Flannery O'Connor's masterwork Wise Blood.

It's 72 degrees here in Boston right now, balmy for late April, and people are turning their furnaces off, opening their windows, and inhaling the incredibly sweet and fresh air. They're also staying out later at night, driving more erratically and doing a lot more reckless jaywalking. Yes, spring is here.

Feeling a little bit bedraggled coming home from work yesterday, I saw an incredible thing. It was a jacked-up El Camino with the American flag painted crassly across the hood. Revving its huge engine and waiting for the light to change, it seemed hopeful, anticipatory; an unexpected feature of the landscape.

It said, keep going.