Taking Me For A Ride – Part One

I don’t believe I’ve shared the history of me and driving and I reckon it might be worth your while reading it as it forms a good part of this entry.

Driving comes across to me as a crucial part of a rite of passage from being a child to being an adult. Whenever the soonest opportunity to learn would come along you’d grab it quickly so as to begin your own independence in this life for it was only a short ride from passing your test to either having your own wheels or treating your parents’ motor as if they’re your own wheels if it’s a cheesy blue Ford Escort (at least it was a five door)

My sister before me had already gone through that rite at the first occasion given to her.  As well as getting that first decent paid job, she worked and saved hard and passed her driving test and in no time at all was able to relieve Dad of driving the motor to church.  He never saw the point in driving especially when he could walk to the place.  He actually heavily influenced my love of walking by this act.

However, it is not my love of walking that didn’t see me pass the rite when my opportunity arose.  I had a funny relationship with money back in me teenage years.  I did do the summer job that brought in some corn and I guess if I was a bit more savvy with the funds I may well have been able to do the lessons and pass, etc.  As it was whenever the greenbacks crossed my palm they had a tendency of disappearing in the cashier registers of my newsagents (ahh I remember Pete’s, the corner shop across the road from my Junior School, what a faithful newsagent).

The next opportunity came up when I was at university and over that first summer holiday earned some rather more serious corn.  At the time I wasn’t paying excessively for the stay I had and had some money to play with.  Tragically for my driving chances that’s exactly what I did, I played with it and all of a sudden money that could have supported my second year at university as well as set me up nicely to possibly do the driving thing had been invested in the every growing CD collection of DMCD and other trivial pursuits.

The underlying issue behind all these missed opportunities was a real lack of desire.  If I want something then I’ll go all out for it, I’ll explore what needs to be done to get it done and do my best to get it.  Driving for all it’s advantages evidently wasn’t that appealing.  Certainly working in central London didn’t make the driving thing any more desirable.

By the time I was up in Stoke-on-Trent, I was 22 and had some bigger fish to fry than learning to drive.  For the majority of 2000 it just wasn’t an issue at all mainly because the cash flow didn’t support such a project.  It did however in the Spring of 2001 and for the first time in my life I had a driving lesson.  That should have been the beginning of a series of driving lessons, but once again lack of application meant I missed a few scheduled lessons and never followed it through.

Things in my head also started turning against the whole driving thing.  In some ways I can be a bit of an awkward get and when people around me are pressing the need to do something where I don’t see the need and especially when the motivating factor isn’t particularly pressing I can just switch off from it.  So I was being told by my peers that I needed to drive to get around and be more independent and all that palaver.

Yet by then I was more than comfortable with either walking to get to my destination or utilising public transport.  As well as that there were always friends who would lend a hand by driving me if the need arose and that was good in in terms of getting me out of my shell further to pluck up the courage to ask for the help.  So the pressing need that people were making a big deal of as if it were a part of being a follower of Christ (know God – know sin – ask for forgiveness – repent – commit to Christ – commit to other Christians – get baptised – learn to drive – take Lord’s Supper annually,) didn’t register with me.

People were hoping and in fact insisting that things would definitely change when I met got engaged to and eventually married Authrine.  After all now there’s a family to look after.  There’s the very real possibility that she may get pregnant (where have I read that recently?) and who’s going to take her to the hospital, etc. etc.  Surely now the change would come.  This was helpful aided by Authrine likewise becoming President of The Man Must Learn To Drive (TMMLTD) campaign even at times using it as a device of emotional persuasion from time to time whilst also recruiting members to TMMLTD (the prayer chain continues to grow with a lot of distinguished names on board).

Deborah and Abigail were born and safely transported to and from the hospital without me learning to drive thanks to dear friends.  As they grew up I was able to exercise my responsibilities in looking after them, getting them to and from nursery and school and all that kind of jazz by the power of their left and right feet.  (I’m sure they’ll likewise learn to drive at the first opportunity as a result of those experiences!)

Wherever we’ve lived in the Stoke years was close to good public transport or engaged my love for walking, so there was never a pressing need t me to learn to drive for all of those experiences.  Thus as the years have passed my own desire to drive has waned further and further.  I made a small deal with meself to say that if I wasn’t driving or learning to drive by 30 then there would be little point in learning.  Now I’m 32, so I’ll leave the conclusions to you.

Don’t get me wrong I have not made it an iron-clad rule THOU SHALT NOT DRIVE and TMMLTD is still a thriving campaign thanks to the efforts of its President.  Yet I’ve grown contented and accustomed to utilising other methods of transport to get me to my destinations.  And it with that in mind that I must share something with you …

Which I’ll do in the second part of this two part series.

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd