Rear Window

For reasons I don't understand, I absolutely love riding backwards in cars. I can remember, as very small child, kneeling on the back seat of my parents' car, looking out to the road behind us, seeing the oncoming headlights of cars and how they clashed with the street lights. When I started riding in friends' station wagons I was usually the one who had to sit in the back because I was smallest and the seat belt could fit me. Now, I find I'll look for an excuse to sit in the back of a hatch-back, even when there are no seat belts. It's not just in cars either. On trains, buses and ferries I'll find reasons to ride facing opposite of the direction I'm headed.

I think it's the sensation of moving backwards instead of forward that I like. It's a very different ride than everyone else in the vehicle has. The image of things getting farther is somehow way more aesthetically appealing to me than things getting closer. I guess it it's because I like to see where I've been more so than where I'm going. That can be read in one of two ways; either that I reminisce rather than move forward or that I like to reflect rather than speculate. It's probably more of the latter though, I must admit, I have been guilty of the first.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with all this. It's just an observation. Although, I may not know where I'm going simply because I'm facing the other way and I like it.