Guess What ... ???

This Girl


is now


an 


OFFICIALLY LICENSED DRIVER


in the state of MINNESOTA ! !


CONGRATULATIONS, JESHANAH!!


Watch out world!!


I remember when Jeremy got his drivers license.  I was so worried...not about his driving skills ... but about the 'other drivers'.  
I had cut a short story out of a magazine and gave it to him.  It was titled "A Letter To My Son On Obtaining His Drivers License".  After cleaning out a file cabinet and a drawer I finally found it. Pretty good after all those years!!  So here, I reprint the story
that originally came from Reader's Digest.
Sorry,  I have no idea of the author.


Many things have changed so much .... but many have not changed at all!


"Congratulations! on acquiring your drivers license.  Welcome to the club for which you have wanted to be a member for so long. As you slide behind the wheel, you will be the possessor of one of the most extraordinary objects of our modern civilization: slave, genie, seven-league boots and magic carpet all rolled into one and at the same time an extension of your own person, your brain, your muscles, your reflexes.  You now have your independence from schedules and timetables, the freedom of the open road, to come and go whenever and wherever you please.  (ummm...that's not totally true for you! LOL)


Never forget this, you cannot escape from being a fallible human being behind the wheel of a car.  The key word "fallible" covers every frailty to which mortals are prone.  It is common to emphasize the dangers of driving and drinking (or driving and texting!)-- but one single moment's negligence, drowsiness or wandering of attention can have the same effect.  You need no longer place your life in the hands of another, and for that I am glad.  But now you will be taking your life, and other's,  into your own hands.


Your driving teacher will have taught you all you should know about the control of your car, its operation the rules and regulations of the highway code and how to handle yourself and your car on the road.  But there are other things - ethical, philosophical, mechanical - which occur to me and one of these is the nature of that beast.


It is you who are solely the master of the machine that serves you.  It is completely subject to your will. It cannot think for you or warn you.  It can shout when you push the horn button but it cannot see and it cannot hear; it cannot make decisions of any kind.  It will carry you safely where you want to go. If you ask it to do something disastrous, like overtaking on a blind curve or at the crown of a hill it will obey. If you command it to ignore road warnings, it will carry out those commands. This marvelous servant depends upon you to help it around a bend or over an icy road. If you fail it, or demand more than it is capable of it will turn on you and it can be as dangerous as a maddened elephant.


Now too, you will be called upon to protect your passengers as well as yourself and here again you will find that you must alter your thinking.  Whenever you are driving a friend (or a niece or nephew), your responsibility increases to the point where you must begin to regard yourself as a professional.  The moment you have another in your car, you are like the engineer in the cab of his locomotive, to the pilot in his cockpit, to the captain of the ship on his bridge.  And you must accept the same obligations. Other humans have entrusted themselves to you; even though they have not paid for a ticket, you have entered a moral contract to deliver them safely to their destination.

And what about that poor, vulnerable creature who walks hi-ways and byways with no protective shell of steel about him - the pedestrian? You were once one of these, subject to being bullied, threatened, ignored or cursed at by drivers who succumb to the delusion that possession of a drivers license gives them the right to lord it over those on foot.


Now as the pilot of your own car, will you remember your frustrations as the stream of traffic refused to wait for you at a crossing, or your terror when some speeding motorist bore down upon you? Will you remember, now you are at the helm of a vehicle that can accelerate from zero to 60 mph in seconds; that walkers have a rhythm of thinking and moving different from yours? They daydream, counting their worries or their blessings as they go; lost in thought, they step off the pavement without looking.  Their reflexes vary. Because the slightest nudge from your fender can put them into a hospital, it becomes your responsibility to do their safety thinking for them.


As for children, the load put upon you is even greater and you must be prepared to accept it.  There will be toddlers who break away from their families suddenly and run out into the middle of the road; older ones who chase a ball that has gotten away; still others who ride wobbly bicycles.  I have not given you any specific driving advice; I will give you only one rule that I have followed always: when passing children anywhere within range, take your foot off the gas and rest it on the brake. The split second gained in stopping may save a young life. 


For all l the warlike toll of dead and wounded listed in the newspapers following a holiday weekend, there are thousands upon thousands of motorists who chalk up a lifetime of mileage without so much as a scratched fender.  They are those who know that the moment you exceed speed limits or ignore danger and warning signs you are over ruling the wise judgement of the engineers who built the roads and traffic experts who have made the laws.  Enjoy your freedom.  Drive as though your life depended on your obeying all that you know to be right.  Enjoy the freedom that a drivers license brings."

So that is the story.  It is now

documented so that it can be passed on.  

We're proud of you, Jeshanah!

You are a safe, responsible driver.

It's fun -- but sometimes hard --

to see you grow up ...

after all ... you're the baby!

Keep up the good work!