Another 6 years ago today article
6 September 2009
This is another article from a short series of blog articles I wrote on my old computer.
Learning to Ride the Centre Line
I took my little granddaughter for a long ride on her tricycle. She is learning to steer and sometimes she steered straight and other times she steered to the cliff (or the road) or the wall, it didn't depend on whether she was steering one-handed, two-handed or no-handed, just on where she was looking. If she was looking at the sea or the road, that was the way she steered. Only when she was looking along the path we were travelling did she steer straight.
Lesson 1 - we go where our attention is pointed
Sometimes we veered one way or the other just for the joy of not steering in a straight line.
Lesson 2 - sometimes we go somewhere just for the Joy of it.
Sometimes, it took the motive power unit (granny) to cut out in emergency mode to prevent a tumble into the ditch but she recognised when she was in danger and steered away, back to the centre of the path. That centre path can be boring and not as interesting as the meandering way from one edge to the other but it gets you there a lot faster and with less danger.
Lesson 3 - we have to learn to recognise the danger of straying from the path
Lesson 4 - we have to learn that sometimes life requires us to leave the safe path if we are to progress
Image Credit » https://pixabay.com/en/yellow-blue-red-tricycle-childs-386732/ by PublicDomainImages
Comments
CoralLevang wrote on September 6, 2015, 2:31 AM
MegL Ah, the lessons we can learn from the simplest of life's gifts are precious. Thank you.
MegL wrote on September 6, 2015, 2:33 AM
Funny, when I read it over as a posted article, I realised I could put those lessons into posters!
CoralLevang wrote on September 6, 2015, 3:20 AM
Great teaching tool, most definitely!
Paulie wrote on September 6, 2015, 7:08 AM
Lessons learned from steering the tricycle certainly have application in our lives. I enjoyed reading this and agree with the excellent analogy you made.
DWDavisRSL wrote on September 6, 2015, 10:30 AM
We can learn so much about ourselves by observing how a young child learns about the world.
markgraham wrote on September 6, 2015, 1:45 PM
I remember doing this when my first niece was learning to ride her tricycle. Never too young to learn the rules of road and safety.
chrisandmark wrote on September 6, 2015, 2:31 PM
I love the thought about the centre line being boring but free from the dangers on either side - maybe a way to explain the whole bike thing to my four year old (who would LOVE to end up in the ditch!)
BarbRad wrote on September 7, 2015, 5:31 PM
You got quite a bit from watching your granddaughter on her trike. Those are lessons worth learning.
AliCanary wrote on September 8, 2015, 3:31 AM
It's true--an extremely high percentage of car accidents occur simply because someone took their eyes off the road. Mobile devices are generally a wonderful invention, but they can be particularly deadly for drivers.
cheri wrote on September 8, 2015, 11:14 PM
How I wish I was able to save all of those files before but now I have lost everything. Good for you that you still keep your files.
MegL wrote on September 9, 2015, 2:02 AM
Have you tried the "Way Back Machine"? There is a website (or maybe more than one) that keeps a record of how web sites USED to look. Maybe your articles are still there?