Vanity of all Vanity: Vanity Raises Its Ugly Head

The other night my wife and I took our children to see the movie Cars. I truly did enjoy the movie, until we were walking out of the theatre and my daughter started assigning family names to each of the characters. My daughter said in a loud voice “Daddy is the tow-truck!” I felt a stab in my back, my first thought (vanity), I looked at the outward appearance of the tow-truck named Mater. Even though I always instruct my children to look at the whole person, I immediately flashed back to appearance when it was directed at me. I thought, how could my daughter think that I am the tow-truck? Outwardly, Mater is a rust bucket with buck teeth, missing parts, backwoods country accent, and not overly intelligent (this part actually did fit).

Initially, I was struggling with the psychoanalysis of the rusty old truck. However, my daughter was looking at personality traits and not outward appearance at all. I asked my girl, “What makes Mater like daddy?” She said, he is happy, he is nice, and he is strong. My chest went out and my heart was filled with a wonderful feeling. The interesting part of it all is my little girl picked out each one of us in the movie and she picked us out well. I wouldn’t want to be anyone else, but Mater. I sure appreciate the opportunity to put vanity back in its place.

Which CAR (movie clip link) are you?