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Poetry
November 2009 
How often do you shift gears in life?
Posted on Oct 21st, 2009
by 
Dryad
Dryad
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for October 21, 2009:
I drive an automatic. It is amazing how often I forget that such things as gears even exist. This usually happens half way up a steep hill when the vehicle gets sluggy and sometimes threatens to stall . . . "Oh!" I'll suddenly think . . ."gears!" The metaphor actually works quite well. You are undoubtably better off with gears - to be able to make up your own mind when they need shifting, rather than waiting for the "set" shift to happen. When I was young I drove nothing but a standard transmition. I wanted to ability to shift and go when I wanted to shift and go, to get up those hills and, yes, probably to make squeeling noises when I pulled out. I was braver then. I'm not so brave now, and undoubtadly lazier. It's easier to let the vehicle shift. I'm not sure I could even work a clutch anymore.
I will never forget, however, that when my Daddy was teaching me to drive he told me that I would begin to know when the gears needed to be shifted. "You learn. Partly you hear it in the engine, and partly you just feel it from the car." At first it boggled me, but it really wasn't long before not only did I "feel" when it was time to shift, but my body automatically put down the clutch while my hands shifted the gears. I really quite loved the feeling of being one with the machine - that automatic knowledge when it was time to shift. Now that something shifts for me, I take the whole process for granted.
I remember the feeling, when riding a bike, that I wasn't going to make it up the hill, then shifting gears and finding that together, the bike and I were quite equal to that hill.
This is a great question - it has made me think. I don't shift gears in my life often enough either. I very often keep going, with every running sluggish and slow, feeling that I can't get up the hills. I need to remember that in my life, if not my car, I have the ability to shift gears and when things get difficult - shifting gears may be just exactly what I need to do.
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