Blog 851 – 12.22.2017

Meditating

Sometimes meditating is like putting your mind out of gear and letting the car coast down the hill. I am thinking of a criticism that I have heard more than once that putting one’s mind in gear before opening our mouth might be a good idea. I am wondering with most everyone driving automobiles with automatic transmissions these days if my “out of gear” analogy might be lost on most.

My first car was a 1957 two-door Ford Custom, six cylinder, with a three speed shifter on the column and a clutch. I already had my license but since I had learned to drive on my parents automatic Ford station wagon I needed some additional training to master my new car. It was actually ten years old at the time, but new to me, and bought with money I had earned myself sacking groceries, and quite a bargain at $150.00. I am always on the look out for the same model for sale. I loved that car.

Dad put me behind the wheel and took me out for one lesson. Dad was not a patient teacher but I was a fast learner and not wishing to spend any more time with him as co-pilot and trainer than I had to, I had the basics of the clutch figured out in short order after stalling it a few times by letting the clutch out too fast. He showed me how to use my excelerator (gas pedal) foot on both the gas and the brake with my left foot easing out on the clutch to hold the car on a hill without rolling back or letting it die, an important skill to know unless you are a flat lander. My mother Alene and grandmother Lilly both joked that for some time I “free-wheeled” ((driving with the clutch depressed) around corners a little too fast giving passengers quite a thrill as they had no steering wheel to hold on to and the car was not equipt with seat belts which were not at that time required. I think I already mentioned that I loved that car.

One of the down sides of free wheeling around corners was that sometimes the shifter linkage would get stuck requiring you to stop, raise the hood, and with pliers unstick them. My first girlfriend in college had a Ford Mustang with a floor shifter so that you had to crawl up under the car to perform the same procedure which was a bit more time consuming and complicated but worked just as well. I don’t suppose drivers today would have much tolerance for those happy motoring adventures of years gone by. Clutching and free wheeling is indeed an adventure and putting one’s mind out of gear is the essence of meditation.

The young people had an expression several years back, “Free your mind and the rest will follow.” Being too hung up on old thought patterns no matter how “true” and “correct” we might believe them to be can keep us stuck reliving the same limited reality day in and day out and cause us to miss the real adventure of a varied and wonderful experience.

There is indeed a place for “critical thinking” but there is also a place for “free wheeling” for coasting around the corners of your mind and down the steep hills of imagination. Do give it a think. Meditate on it.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

Disclaimer: Ford was mentioned three times in this piece, I have owned many different makes and models and do not have a favorite. But a 1957 Ford was my first car, I loved that car, and like your first girl or boy friend they always have a special place in your heart, but then doesn’t everything and everyone really, that we love. Yeah, Dave, we know – you loved that car. Right.