We bought a new Prius today. Proud to say that both of our family cars are hybrids. It works for us now that our children are grown or growing. This is a good time to buy a hybrid, if a smaller car works for you. Car sales are down and dealers’ eagerness to deal is up. As always, don’t accept the first offers you get. Give them time to call you back with their next offer. And most likely you can do even better than folks like us who are a bit of a soft touch.

Still, it will take us years of high fuel prices to pay for the car. But we didn’t choose the car for the savings. We chose it for the world’s children; for the health of the environment; and to make it easier for us to get in to the car each day and turn on the motor.

I usually find it hard to say goodbye to a family car. I usually concoct some sort of private decommissioning or honorable discharge or farewell ceremony for me and my machine, thanking the car for tending well to my family; keeping us safe on all the roads we traveled; enriching our lives by the places it allowed us to go. I have less need to say a sentimental goodbye to this car. Perhaps it is because it only got 20 miles to the gallon. Perhaps it was because it never carried a Reisner baby. Perhaps because I really imagined it to be my husband’s car all along. But this time, it is not just a car we are letting go. It is a whole innocent way of life.