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When I was 11 I remember being holed up in the garage watching my brother put-back-together a go cart he had painstakingly built the previous summer.  Just the day before, without his knowing I had taken a dusty sheet off "the beast" and dragged her up the hill to the top of my street.

The first run down was fine but ho-hum.  I wanted more. I wanted speed.  My tween understanding of friction mechanics told me that a liberal dose of oil makes everything go faster.

I raced back inside to the pantry, grabbed the gallon can of olive oil and liberally applied it to the axle, the steering hinge and for good measure, the rims of the wheels.  Those exact same rims that brake pads are squeezed against when you want to bring the cart to a halt.

So I got my speed up just fine, but three quarters down the hill I realized the brakes weren't gripping.  The oil between the break pad and rim provided for layer of slick lubrication, keeping them spinning along and me hurtling toward the neighbor's brick fence.

Saving myself I performed a dive role that Bond would have been proud of; walking away from the scene without a scratch.  The cart however, had rolled several times smashing into the brick wall and now lay in three pieces coated in a layer of rancid olive oil, dirt and grass.

Being brothers, I copped the inevitable beating that came my way and out of 11 yr-old guilt retreated to a safe corner of the garage to pay my respects and watch the effort to put The Beast back together again.

What stayed with me all this time was not the thrill of the ride, or the adrenalin of escaping serious injury.  It was the way in which all these inanimate bits and pieces could be assembled into something new and powerful and alive.

Something much more powerful than the sum of its parts.  

And that of course is theme we see time and time again, every day and throughout history.  The United Nations is a stronger force than the sum of its member countries.  A Long Island Ice Tea is (trust me) stronger than its ingredients alone and everyone knows what happens when scientists start splitting atoms.