Standard Shift

All our grandkids’ first driving experience is with our Kubota side-by-side RTV. The handbrake is worn out from grandkids forgetting to release the brake before engaging the accelerator. There is not much else that they can do to this 1700 lb. diesel-powered machine, so it is a good means of letting the grandkids learn to drive. They usually begin at an early age sitting in my lap and holding on to the steering wheel. They progress to actually steering the RTV, and after a few years they begin to sit in the driver’s seat alone while I (or another adult) sit beside them. All of this learning experience takes place on the farm and not on a public road so it is a safe environment.

I think it is sad that kids never learn to drive a straight shift vehicle, so I encourage our grandchildren to learn to drive my standard shift tractor. Granted the tractor is much more forgiving on the friction point of the clutch, but they do learn the basic principles of driving a straight shift.

This past weekend Naomi, 15, and Caleb, 14, had their first tractor driving experience. After you get the tractor in motion there is no changing gears until you stop, so I am hollering at them to stop and then go once again. That gives them more practice with the clutch. I am proud of them wanting to learn to drive the tractor because anyone can drive a vehicle with automatic transmission, but few can drive the standard shift.

Many people today are in automatic drive. They are rushing through life with all of its routines and forgetting some standard things in life: telling your spouse “I love you,” sitting down with your child and actually having a conversation without looking at your phone, dancing with grandchildren, having a sit-down meal with the whole family, spontaneously giving someone something, sitting around the fireplace or firepit with family with no TV or devices, walking in the woods, having an impromptu picnic with someone you love, driving for nearly two hours one way just to watch a grandchild’s soccer game, pausing and enjoying a sunrise or sunset, staring at the clouds and imagining designs that you see in them, playing board games with grandchildren, picking up someone’s check in a restaurant (probably not in the past year!), starting a new hobby, and on and on.

The simplest things in life are the ones that are most often overlooked because we live in automatic drive. Every day we should practice standard drive and see God in his creation, the food we eat, the air we breathe, the friendships we enjoy, and the pleasures of family, work, and hobbies. 

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” I Timothy 6:17 NASB.

Auto drive discourages us from many simple pleasures in life. Take a ride in standard shift and enjoy life more.