I have always been fascinated by bumper stickers. Why do people put them on their cars? Is it just another way to exercise our right to free speech? Are our cars just an extension of our personalities? Could it be that we Americans love our cars and love telling people what we think? Or do we consider naked bumpers too embarrassing? 

While today, Facebook and Twitter have become venues for people to express themselves in a similar way, bumper stickers remain a phenomenon. And America appears to be the one place where the bumper sticker industry is thriving. These mobile billboards have become as common as warts on a bullfrog.

Bumper stickers have a universal appeal for various purposes, including personal expression, promotion, humor, sports, and politics. Some of the more famous stickers include:

• My Other Car Is a Porsche
• Proud Mother of ______
• Baby on Board
• Semper Fi
• I Support the Second Amendment
• Honk if You Love Jesus

The funniest sticker I ever saw was in December of 1972. Driving back to Georgia from a wedding in Mobile, Alabama, I began to see several of the same bumper stickers on cars. The week before, Auburn had upset Alabama 17-14 by returning two blocked punts for touchdowns. Auburn fans quickly found a way to rub their victory in the noses of their in-state rival with a bumper sticker that shouted, “Punt Bama Punt!”

We certainly live in a culture that reveres freedom of speech. Making our cars our personal billboards is an easy and inexpensive way to exercise that right. To be honest, I generally do not put bumper stickers on my vehicle. If for no other reason, I do not consider myself a good enough driver to endorse any specific message.

That said, it has not stopped me from contemplating possible options. As will be apparent, I lean towards the philosophical bumper sticker. Consider these:

• Practice Gratitude
• Gratitude is the mother of all virtues. Chesterton
• Faithfulness not Success
• Once the flame of faith dies out, all other lights begin to dim.  Pope Francis
• It’s easier to destroy a country than to re-build it. Cardinal Robert Sarah
• The best gifts don’t have bows.   (Hallmark.com)
• Hospitality is an apologetic.
• The battle with discouragement, while fought in our minds, is won on our knees.
• Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it. George Halas
• Without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear.
• The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Marcus Aurelius
• Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good. Archbishop Charles Chaput
• Political Correctness is tyranny with manners.
• Joy is the best make-up. Anne Lamott
• Get rich quick — Count your blessings
• I love four-letter words like BOOK READ
• Reading can seriously harm your ignorance.
• Being Kind is better than being right.
• There is a God, and I’m not Him.
• What we worship determines what we become.
• Socialism is the religion people get when they lose their religion.
• The only way to peace is forgiveness.
• God’s Phone Number – Jeremiah 33:3

Granted, some of these not-so-pithy quotes may be too long to adorn today’s bumpers. My affinity for sayings that must be pondered could prove a dangerous distraction, so maybe I should continue to leave my bumpers au naturel.

Unless I find one as good as “Punt Bama Punt!”