Antique Cars

As a kid, I loved amusement parks.  Luckily for me, I grew up about fifteen minutes from the best amusement park in the world – Cedar Point.    I never met a rollercoaster I didn’t like – sit down, stand up, let your feet dangle, forwards, backwards – I was up for the challenge.  I craved the nervous excitement of climbing that first hill while listening to the “clink, clink, clink” as it sluggishly made its way up to the top.  And of course, I always waited the extra time to sit in the very front row.  I wanted to feel the wind in my face.  I wanted the unobstructed view of the drop that was nearing, the twist that was coming, to see when my world would be turned upside down. 

There was only one ride I didn’t like, the Antique Cars.  The Antique Cars had a top speed of about 5mph.  The only motivation to even ride the Antique Cars was that I wasn’t old enough to drive a real car and I was allowed to sit behind the wheel in one and steer.  The reason? There was an iron bar that went around the whole track centered between the left and right wheels.  I could never go off course.  I couldn’t get reckless.  There was no shifting gears, no reverse.  I could perhaps bump the car ahead of me for excitement, but, at 5mph, that never seemed worthy of being thrown out of the park.  So, I resisted.  I never had to choose between the Antique Cars and the rollercoaster, a day at the park was long enough to do both.  But, if I ever would have had to choose, the rollercoaster would have won, hands down, no questions asked. 

As adults, we can either choose go through life like the rollercoaster or the Antique Cars, but not both.  Yet, the real rollercoaster is not like my childhood memory at all – if we choose to simply ride along its course, we learn we can no longer see when the drop is nearing or when the twists are coming.  We can’t prepare our stomachs to be turned upside down or be pulled backwards.  We scream at the unexpected or we close our eyes and miss part of the journey.   Even when we’re up, we realize we don’t enjoy the ride anymore because of the fear that another fall is just ahead. 

But, oh, when we ride along with the Antique Car!  It’s just as steady as always.  It’s centered and moving forward; it doesn’t loop around in circles of ground it has already covered before.  We find comfort that we are not really steering at all as we sit behind the wheel; it’s in control guiding us along the rail.  The pace might seem slow at times, even boring to onlookers, but we know this is just so we can take the time to notice the little things along the way.  There may be dark tunnels on the path, but we know we’re going to come out, for we can see the light on the other side.  We can trust we will safely get where we’re going; we can have no fear.  So, now, when asked my choice, I will always select the Antique Car.  Which will you choose?