{"id":510,"date":"2011-02-23T09:03:47","date_gmt":"2011-02-23T09:03:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html"},"modified":"2011-02-23T09:03:47","modified_gmt":"2011-02-23T09:03:47","slug":"we-bought-a-swagger-wagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html","title":{"rendered":"We Bought a Swagger Wagon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We bought a Swagger Wagon, otherwise known as the Toyota Sienna. Have you seen the video?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" class=\"youtube-player\" type=\"text\/html\" width=\"640\" height=\"390\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ql-N3F1FhW4\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Up until baby Becker #3 became a reality, our Prius did just fine. But when we couldn&#8217;t fit the whole fam in the car any longer, it was time to trade in. Apparently the makers of the Sienna had us in mind when they designed their minivan.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The video, plus recent <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/01\/04\/business\/04minivan.html?scp=1&amp;sq=minivan%20&amp;st=cse\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> of attempts to make minivans look &#8220;cool,&#8221; especially to suburban dads, made me think back to the Prius purchase a few years back. We were deciding between the Prius and the Highlander Hybrid. The salesman asked me, &#8220;Why are you so interested in driving a hybrid vehicle?&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<div>I shrugged. &#8220;Well, we like the idea of better gas mileage, but it&#8217;s mostly due to social consciousness, I suppose.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said, &#8220;Oh, well if that&#8217;s what you want, I could always just put a sticker on the outside of the Highlander saying it was a hybrid even if you buy the regular model. I do it all the time.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>I cocked my head, baffled. What was he talking about? Eventually I figured it out&#8211;he thought by &#8220;social consciousness&#8221; I meant, &#8220;what my friends will think of me.&#8221; I thought I meant &#8220;being conscious of how my actions impact society.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>We&#8217;re still a one-car family, although now it is a large car that, relative to the Prius, guzzles gas. Perhaps we just forfeited our social consciousness on both fronts. Oh well. At least Penny and William think it&#8217;s cool. &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We bought a Swagger Wagon, otherwise known as the Toyota Sienna. Have you seen the video?&nbsp; Up until baby Becker #3 became a reality, our Prius did just fine. But when we couldn&#8217;t fit the whole fam in the car any longer, it was time to trade in. Apparently the makers of the Sienna had&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>We Bought a Swagger Wagon - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Bought a Swagger Wagon - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We bought a Swagger Wagon, otherwise known as the Toyota Sienna. Have you seen the video?&nbsp; Up until baby Becker #3 became a reality, our Prius did just fine. But when we couldn&#8217;t fit the whole fam in the car any longer, it was time to trade in. Apparently the makers of the Sienna had&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-23T09:03:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"amyjuliabecker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We Bought a Swagger Wagon - Thin Places","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We Bought a Swagger Wagon - Thin Places","og_description":"We bought a Swagger Wagon, otherwise known as the Toyota Sienna. Have you seen the video?&nbsp; Up until baby Becker #3 became a reality, our Prius did just fine. But when we couldn&#8217;t fit the whole fam in the car any longer, it was time to trade in. Apparently the makers of the Sienna had&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html","og_site_name":"Thin Places","article_published_time":"2011-02-23T09:03:47+00:00","author":"amyjuliabecker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html","name":"We Bought a Swagger Wagon - Thin Places","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-02-23T09:03:47+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-23T09:03:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2011\/02\/we-bought-a-swagger-wagon.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We Bought a Swagger Wagon"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/","name":"Thin Places","description":"Amy Julia Becker on Faith, Family, and Disability","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/4dde10eee38770361dc9b46a9413776b","name":"amyjuliabecker","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/222\/2222023dcae76abe6e896a3cf80e9836x96.jpg","caption":"amyjuliabecker"},"description":"Amy Julia Becker writes about theology, disability, family, and culture. Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}