When I was a young girl and yearning for my driver’s license, my Dad felt it was very nearly essential that everyone know how to manage a manual transmission. He stressed that I “might be able to save someone’s life someday” by being capable of either reversing or moving a vehicle forward to free someone from underneath!
Decades later, never having found myself in that particular situation by the way, it seems like so many adults are driving through life’s changes on “auto”-pilot rather than shifting gears on the grades and bumps in the road. Perhaps the different stages of living were viewed at a younger age as having a certain set of how’tos that everyone seemed to follow. An example might be “getting married and having babies” or “having a split-level house with a two car garage and manicured lawn”!
Just as every roadway requires adept maneuvering to get over the bumps and around obstacles, so it is with baby-boomers like myself! We may not drive quite as fast as in earlier times, but our senses are acute and experience serves us well. Whether we’re in the proverbial fast lane or not, being able to smoothly change gears can result in a stall when we least expect it!
I think of my Dad often when the way is uneven and treacherous – being able to move forward or reverse if necessary can indeed be a lifesaver.
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