Today, an old friend of mine slipped farther away from me than she has ever been. With age, it is said, comes wisdom. Yet these are the words spoken by those afraid to acknowledge the sad truth that age brings with it other things, many of them unpleasant.

Fifteen years ago at a plant in Ontario, a few parts imported from Sweden were assembled into a brand new Volvo 940. After a long run, that car has now begun its descent into the next life. A junkyard? Maybe. But that’s just where the scraps will go, the bones to decompose in the company of other lifeless vehicles. But where the spirit goes, who can say?

With oil leaking — nay — pouring from the head gasket, and several seals along the engine corroding down to nothingness, I know she cannot last much longer. Like an old woman succumbing to the clutches of senility and pushing away a plate of her younger self’s favorite food, the Volvo has decided that she no longer likes oil. I know, and you know, although she cannot see, that without oil, she will starve. Because oil is delicious.

A hot commodity on the global market, oil has brought about many terrible things. But this tragic fact is simply a tribute to the high regard with which we hold oil. It is worth noting that Venezuelans pay $0.12 per gallon of gasoline, demonstrating that socialist nations with large oil reserves do not properly revere the value of the substance. But we all know that without oil, gasoline, and other petroleum products, life would be drastically different. Because oil is delicious.

Even as we stand on the verge of newer, cleaner, greener, more efficient technologies, we have to acknowledge the millions of animals that came before us from whose rotted corpses we have taken our black gold. As we obsess about looking forward, let us take a moment to look back. Because, although my Volvo is too old and stubborn to admit it anymore, oil is delicious.