Lock it Like It’s Hot

Every time I park my car, I lock it. Even though I live in a small village. Even though I park just outside my door, in the garage. Even though no one has ever broken into my vehicle. And it’s not because I’m cautious, or because I’m worried, or because I read all the negative statistics. It’s simply because that’s what I’ve always done. You know how it is.

We all do things that might have made sense for us once, so we kept doing it, even when it stopped making sense. Or did something we regretted so we started doing the opposite and never stopped. The key is that we never stopped. We never evaluated why we do what we do, unless some crazy blogger writes a blog and makes us consider it.

When I was a kid, I lived in a very bad part of West Philadelphia (like there was a good part back in those days), where if you didn’t lock up everything it wouldn’t be there when you returned, no matter how long or short a time you were away. There were always eyes, and they didn’t just belong to the junkies looking for money for their next hit. It was everyone going through tough times. And it didn’t matter if it was your neighbor or not. Nothing mattered but if you could get over on someone else, if you could get that bread, yo.

So we locked up. And me and my sister were latchkey kids, a term invented when both parents had to work so no one was home when the school bus drops you off. We were trusted with the keys to our home, the most guarded of the things we locked up, so we had to be very careful. If we lost the keys, there was no telling who would be in our home and how quickly, carting off all our stuff. It was always about stuff.

So I still do it now. I lock up, no matter how long I will be away from it, no matter what it is, no matter where I happen to be. Then I heard on the news the other day of a series of car burglaries in a village very similar to mine, and the startling statistic? None of those cars was physically broken into. Every single one was unlocked because the people felt safe, because that is where they’ve always lived and they’ve always been safe before. And I thought of how and why I was safe, not because I was afeared, but because I didn’t grow up around here. There’s something to be said for that.

Truly there is.

Sam