Life is like Driving a Car

Today was going just fine until something hit me. Literally, hit me. I was in the parking lot at the Speedway which was packed with cars. I finally found an open pump and as I was turning I felt my car lurch. When you first get hit there is always that intial feeling of “what was that?” yet your mind doesn’t quite connect the dots for a few seconds. Suddenly I look in my rear view mirror and here is this big red truck. Oh Boy.

So that is my interesting story of the day. Honestly, I haven’t ever been hit in my car before. It’s a weird feeling. You feel like you are in control of the car- Your foot is on the brake or gas and your hands are controlling the wheel when suddenly ‘Bam’ you aren’t as in control as you thought. Often times we life is like driving a car. 1st we choose what car we want to drive (sometimes our choice is limited to what we have: like finances). Now that we have our car we feel in control of our driving, because it is ‘our’ car. And we choose how we drive.

-Some of us prefer to drive slow and careful- because you can never be too cautious.

-Some of us are the people who drive with great attention to our surroundings. We always know where we’re going and we know what cars are around us because we know that you can never quite trust the people around you or a map.

-Then there are the people who like to drive for fun- usually they like the country roads or the highways so they can see how much speed their car has. They don’t care much about the consequences of their reckless driving, they simply want to have fun.

-Then there are the road ragers. They might not label themselves in this way but they start with the people who are always ready to give an evil glare to the car next to them, possibly another gesture to show their disproval of their driving abilities, and when they get stressed, are late, or they are having a bad day, they take control of the road like it was their own without a care to anyone elses car or lives.

Do you see the parallel to life? The thing about life and driving is eventually things can go wrong. You continually have to fill up gas (no matter what the price) in order to keep driving. Life seems to be all about watching the dial on the dashboard slowly falling until it reaches empty and then attempting to fill it back up with however much money you have on you. Then there are the times your car breaks down. Sometimes its just minor problems, other times… not so minor. We can hit some glass or a nail and find ourselves with a flat tire. A grocery basket leaves a few unwanted dents. The birds leave a few unwanted blotchy spots, and the car wash becomes our good friend. Then we get those days- days like today where it seems like out of nowhere you get hit real hard- in life maybe that’s the day a family member gets a diagnosis, a friend dies, a relationship is broken, a job is lost, a fight leads to seperation, and the list goes on…

Life is kind of like driving a car. Sometimes it’s so easy. You get in, turn it on, and go on your merry way. Other days, driving isn’t so easy. Sometimes we are just plain sick of it. Sometimes we are just sick of life. But we figure out how to drive anyways. And when we hit the pot holes, get the flat tires, or get backed into in a parking lot we are just reminded that life is never predictable and nor is driving.