Why Boys Like Trucks

This week’s Journey of Discovery found me Surrounded by hundreds of Eighteen -Wheelers! I remember my dad who long hauled heavy equipment on a flatbed would school all his nine children on how to drive around big rigs, “watch for the turn signals and stay back, or do not dart in front of a large truck they need a long distance to slow down before coming to a light.”  Yet still, I began to feel small in my little Subaru as I traveled down Interstate 5.  I stopped singing “On the Road again,” around my 23rd go around and began to listen to life on the highway, the humm of the road, the wind and the powerful engines of the trucks jockeying for a place on that long stretch of California road.  Who are these mostly men, where are they driving and what are they carrying in those trailers?   I then began to think of all the little boys I had ever known, my brothers, my son, a little boy I nannied for years and now four grandsons, they all love trucks.

“Suzanne, stop, stop, over there, tractor, tractor,” came the cry from my little charge in the back seat. I would pull over and we would watch the men working, moving massive piles of dirt, I admit, it was fascinating.

But why do guys love trucks?  And so, at the next rest station, I pulled out my Personal Information Device, my phone and began to read. It turns out there’s research on it and most compelling was the 2008 vervet money experiment. In their research they found that most of the young girl monkeys chose a doll to play with and most of the boy monkeys chose a truck to play with. Monkeys not exposed to the social programming of humans, still chose the toys you would think based on their sex, the researchers reasoned it was hormonal differences, God would say, he made it that way. Researchers stated that males were probably more attracted to more vigorous and powerful toys because of their testosterone. Researchers said males had better visual perception than girls because of evolutionary reasons, they had to hunt and kill Saber Tooth Tigers while girls gave birth and raised the young. God would say, “yea, I know, I made it that way.”

 
  My thoughts were interrupted when over the loudspeaker came the call that shower number three was ready, meaning that for those long-haul truckers aside from a rest and a meal, a shower would be glorious.

As I got back into my car, it occurred to me, that some of these men who drive trucks might be doing it because it was something that resonated with them when they were kids and then they just naturally went into the field as adults or  maybe it’s just a way to pay the bills- but their job is super valuable and often goes unnoticed. Expert on raising good men and author of, “Wild at Heart, Discovering the secret of a man’s soul,” John Eldridge writes this about young men,

“A man needs a much bigger orbit than a woman. He needs a mission, a life purpose, and he needs to know his name. Only then is he fit for a woman, for only then does he have something to invite her into.”

And

“don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, because what the world needs are men who have come alive.”

As for me, I say this, If you know a young man in your life and driving a truck while singing, “On the Road Again,” makes him come alive, the world needs him and appreciates him.

https://frontrowdads.com/john-eldredge/

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