Learning to Ride a Bicycle

Jan 7, 2012 by jaymac    No Comments    Posted under: Embracing Each Day, Fatherhood, Spirituality, Writing

As I look out the window today, I see grapple – sort of a snow, sleet mixture.  On sunny days, my family will often watch the BMX races at a nearby park.

My son wants to race. Badly. His eyes light up; sometimes he jumps up and down with excitement; other times, he’s mesmerized. He wants to race, but his biggest problem is training wheels.

“You just can’t race other kids when you use training wheels,” I tell him, expecting his little 6-year-old mind grasp this concept.

Load-balancing the mangled training wheels

Before the grapple fell, I took off the training wheels. Honestly, only one side has what you’d call a wheel. The other wheel looks like a dog chewed the heck out of it. Our dogs are dead.

So wrench in hand, I unscrewed the nuts and brackets, just hoping to make his ride a little smoother. Much to my surprise, he wanted to practice riding without the device for the unelegantly balanced.

“I want to practice, Daddy. I want to race.”

Great, I said. But also to my surprise, he didn’t want my help. He wanted to do it himself. Alas, it didn’t end well for him. He ran into the fence, then a tree. Then he became “angwry.”

So we took a walk. I hoped a little sunshine would calm him. Alas, it did not. Expert mechanic that I am, I did not ”load-balance”  the training wheels, and he lost his balance.  Temper flaring again, he kicked the handle bars and cried when he hurt his toe.

The lesson about training wheels

Here’s the lesson I learned from my six-year-old son. Sometimes we need help. Friends, family members, colleagues or strangers may want to give us exactly what we need. Instead of accepting the assistance with gratitude, we shun them.

If you are a believer in Christ, this is how we treat God. If you are a writer, we do this by ignoring all the great “lessons learned” by wiser, experienced folk.

Seek out advice. Look for mentors, find someone who can make you better, faster, stronger. Then go and offer that same help to someone else.

I’m still working on this. You might say I’m still wearing training wheels myself. Maybe one day I’ll get to take them off.

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