God created man and then He created woman. Henry Ford built the car first and then the pickup. The love a man has for a woman or his truck is on the same spiritual plane. Many country music writers say the truck has the edge for a man’s heart.

This love between a man and his truck is not a mystery. Unlike a car that can only take you from one location to another, the truck can do so much more. When Mr. Ford started out building a truck I am sure he thought about the horse-drawn wagon of the Old West. He just replaced the horse with an engine; the same concept as the automobile.

In 1925, he beefed up the springs for heavy cargo and added a tailgate. Since conception, the bed of the truck has had the focus. The bed is where it all happens. This is as true today as it was in the last century.

Some auto designers came up with the idea of enclosing the bed of a truck making it a Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV). Just about all manufacturers have designed their own version. The SUV has been particularly popular with women. When confronted with a choice a “real man” will choose the truck every time.

What the auto designers of today do not get is that men need and must have the truck bed. While an SUV can carry some cargo, this is not the primary need for men. We use the truck bed to talk, to share, to confide, to brag, to discuss — like a magnet it brings men together. It is where we bond.

The bed must be the correct height so anyone can walk up and look easily inside. This is important because the truck’s owner uses the mystery of its contents to let men know it is OK to approach. When we turn our eyes downward into the bed, we could see a big deer, a “big” mess of fish, dove, and quail or possibly a rattlesnake (dead or alive) or a gator so you are always a little cautious. Anyone of these things could start a conversation of an hour or more. We lean over toward the bed using the top rail to support us. The lucky men (usually the first two) get the tailgate end with the bumper. The bumper-end men get to prop their left or right foot there allowing for more lean and more support. Less today but a once popular ritual would have been to use this as a sign to open your “smokes” and share with anyone caught short.

Standing around a pickup truck bed is a rite that belongs only to men. Women, not even the prettiest, are accepted into the truck bed world. Some might be allowed to stand but never lean and neither for very long. If a woman should do this, the bond is lost, the mystery becomes not nearly as mysterious and the men disperse. Only together but as one around the truck bed can men enter into the spiritual realm. I would favor our President buying every member of Congress (only men, of course) a pickup with any extra stimulus money. It would not be a dually, four-door or a long-wheel base, just a standard regular truck. Every truck owner should be allowed to park their truck at the door of Congress and at least twice a day the truck owners would be given time to go outside to prop, lean and talk. It might also be good to give them one to use back in their home district. They might learn to talk more with their constituents.

If our national leaders truly want cooperation “across the aisle” then talk across a pickup truck bed is the answer.