For those of us of the older, let’s just say a more mature generation, having a Cadillac was IT. It is hard to understand what a Cadillac meant back then due to the many choices in today’s luxury car market. Very few if any other choices existed back in the day if interested in a true luxury car besides the Cadillac. If you had a Cadillac, you were somebody. Even if you lived in a shack, if you had a Cadillac in the driveway, it didn’t matter. From the 1939 Phaeton 5859 to the 1961 Park Avenue to the 1975 Coupe De Ville with even other classics in between, you were styling in your Cadillac.
Songs were written about this iconic brand such as “Pink Cadillac” by Aretha and Springsteen; “Two Black Cadillacs” by Carrie Underwood; “That’s What I Like” by Bruno Mars; “Guitars and Cadillacs” by Dwight Yoakum – just to name a few. The mystique of the Cadillac still lives on today if only in memory.
In 1976, Johnny Cash recorded “One Piece at a Time.” The lyrics depict a factory worker who was so infatuated with the Cadillacs he was working on yet could never afford. What could he do? He was haunted by that car and determined to have one of his own. After years of pilfering, he put it all together and had himself a “Cadillac” of sorts. Parts change over the years. He certainly “had the only one around.”
Well, what’s the point? Watch out; here comes that boomerang again. How are great things created?
How do great movements begin? How do great people evolve? The answer is quite simple, Johnny Cash, “one piece at a time and it did not cost me a dime.” That’s right, what does it cost to build a relationship with others not quite like you? What does it cost to converse with others? What does it cost to change your heart or that of another?
Certainly, the “Cadillac” in Cash’s song wasn’t built in a day, a year or even a decade, but it remained a work in progress. The factory worker had a vision that someday he would have something very special – and he did! The finished product was made up of diverse parts making it one of a kind. Sure, it did not look like other Cadillacs that rolled down the assembly line over the years. But, so what? It ran smoothly and got the attention of all his neighbors and friends.
We are more valuable than a Cadillac. We are human beings that need to try to become something special one piece at a time. Since today there is more than one luxury car to be envious over, the lesson might be that many other brands and models are wonderful a well. Can we learn that lesson about people?
