“Freedom is your right. If you make that request we will honor it.” – Optimus Prime As I was painting this piece, my husband, (also a trucker) remarked how the trucks resembled the Transformers. I hadn’t noticed it when I chose to paint my impression of the, now iconic, photograph. What I saw was the strength of the message Canadian truckers were sending to their government through the corporate elite. Just like when the playground bully picks a fight, and your big brother shows up in your defense. Or, just like in the Transformer movie, if Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and BlitzWing showed up in Ottawa to take on Megatron of Tyranny. What else struck me, looking at the windows of the tall buildings and the windshields of the trucks--both are tempered. According to multiple sources, “Tempered or toughened glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled thermal or chemical treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass. Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and the interior into tension. Such stresses cause the glass, when broken, to shatter into small granular chunks instead of splintering into jagged shards as ordinary glass does. The granular chunks are less likely to cause injury.” Every day, both the truckers and the corporate elite look through the tempered glass to go about their lives, freely, to earn a living, and pursue their happiness. It’s their view of the world that defines their temperament. It’s what increases their strength and their resolve, respectively. I believe, forced compression to create tension is a metaphor for what inspired Freedom Convoy 2022. As an American who shares similar concerns and values, I continue to pray and hope for the best outcome for the Canadian people in this regard. (The above is an excerpt from an essay I wrote on this topic.)