I
was eleven-years-old the first time I went to the Magic Kingdom.
And it was on that trip that I became terrified of driving.
Ok…
sure… YEARS before even taking a class that could lead
to a learner’s permit. How terrified could I possibly be? Well…
There’s
a ride called the Tomorrowland Speedway. Bunch of motorized carts.
Shells serving as bodies that create the idea of race cars. All
guided around a track by a metal rail. Just hit the gas and eventually,
even ignoring the steering wheel entirely, you’ll finish your
lap and wind up back where you started.
For
an eleven-year-old however, well: (1) A desire to drive a car
is not an all-that-distant future. (2) A morning of Disney-magic
experience proves a belief that just about anything that can be
imagined can be created. (3) A car to drive around the track,
with a gas pedal and a steering wheel. (4) Tall enough to clear
the you-must-be-this-tall bar and able to drive a car without
an adult along for the ride.
Magic.
Disney magic.
And
it was a disaster.
The
cars wouldn’t go the way I wanted to drive it. The wheel turned,
car kind of moved, but mostly just to quickly and awkwardly hit
the rail to stop it from going off to the right, bounce off, then
hit the rail again to stop it from going off to the left. Back
and bump and forth and bump and bumpitty bump bump.
Disney
World folks. GREAT memory of my youth. Loved that trip. But I
remember leaving the Speedway afraid that if driving a car at
Disney with a metal rail to guide me was that difficult, a real
car with no rail was going to be impossible.
A
few years later, family went to Florida again to visit family.
Disney World got included. I hadn’t turned sixteen yet, and back
to the Magic Kingdom and back to the Tomorrowland Speedway. A
driver’s license was closing in on reality, I had a bit more confidence
about what real driving was meant to be, and this time I was going
to take that car around the track and show it what I was capable
of doing.
You
know the result. Back and bump and forth and bump and bumpitty
bump bump.
This
time, however, it was funny. I enjoyed it. I knew the real world
outside the theme park walls was not being reflected here in the
attraction. The Tomorrowland Speedway was not a realistic driving
simulator.
I’m
guessing you may have realized by this point that I’m not here
to discuss the Tomorrowland Speedway in depth. Instead, I was
considering this the other day when involved in different circumstances.
Often,
we find ourselves involved in situations where we place incorrect
elements in places. Expectations might be a good word for what
I mean, though that doesn’t seem to capture all of it. We could
be considering anything from a personal relationship to a professional
opportunity, and the end result is that when two people have completely
different ideas about what is being presented opinions and reactions
will be vastly different. Be on the wrong page, step forward,
take actions and bump and forth and bump and bumpitty bump bump.
Believe
it or not, we all can learn from training wheels. Guide rails.
But more than anything, occasionally the best sources of happiness
and satisfaction are founded solely from a recognition what is
going on.