$10 Gasoline

I wince. Each time I fill up the tank, I wince. And then I sound really ancient and bitter when I say -- to no one in particular since the kid is too young and the dog is a dog -- "I remember when I could fill up for $20!" The year I got my license (none of your business), a gallon of gas cost $.95. I bought a 1966 Ford Mustang that got roughly 12 miles to the gallon because why the hell not... I still have that Mustang. I just can't afford to drive it anymore.

I'm not looking for sympathy. I actually feel pretty damn guilty about the whiny tone I'm adopting here because, though $4.19 gas really sucks right now, I know it may the best thing to happen to America in a long time.

OK, put down your hate mail and hear me out: Cheap gas wasn't doing us any favors. Sure, it let us fly from Boston to San Francisco for $250 round trip. And drive to Vermont every weekend from Thanksgiving to St. Patrick's Day. But don't those short-term pleasures seem gross and frivolous knowing that polar bears are literally drowning right this very minute? Doesn't an at-home Memorial Day weekend sound like a small price to pay for saving a species?

All great innovations in American history happened because of an economic catalyst or stimulus of some kind. That, or the fear of a Communist planetary take-over. So maybe $10 gasoline will be the thing that finally inspires a budding young scientist to unlock the door to oil-independent transportation in this country. Maybe, cooped up in his bedroom unable to fire up that glinting midnight blue '66 'Stang sitting under a tarp in the garage, my own son will find a way to make this country drive smart. If anything could do it, surely Mom's Mustang could.