Learning to ride

So I watched the Disney movie 'Meet the Robinson's' the other day. Love it. The main character is a genius inventor who invents, among other things, a device that allows you to see events and occasions that your brain retains but that you don't consciously remember. I was thinking that if I had access to such a device, today I would use it to see me learning to ride a bike. I don't remember how that went down, but I know that it must have on account of the fact that I know how to ride a bike (despite the contradictory evidence of time I flew over the handle bars on my mission). Anyway, I'm pretty sure that my first bike was a Garfield (as in the cat) bicycle, which I received for Christmas many, many years ago. I would imagine the scene of me riding for the first time without training wheels to have involved my parents. I was trying to picture it the other day. I would imagine that at least my dad would have been there and would have held on to the handle bars for the first several steps before letting go and letting me ride solo.

I entertained the idea of this assumed scene as I was driving off in my new used car on Saturday. My parents are amazing. You see, on the last day of classes (just under two weeks ago), as I was sitting in my last class, I decided that I may want to buy a car to use this summer. When I was at home that weekend, I expressed my interest, and showed my genuine desire and received the support of my parents. Ultimately, Dad said he'd go to an auction preview and try to pick me out something good that was within my budget and have a friend of his in the business bid for it. So on Tuesday he picked a few favorites, and on Wednesday a 2001 Ford Taurus SES was purchased. By then I was in Provo finishing up my finals.

So, my parents withdrew some money from my bank account, and chipped in some to pay for the vehicle, they took it to Berge to get maintenanced, got it insured, and on Saturday, they drove it up to St. George, where they were going to support my little sister who was stage managing a dance performance at Tuacan. Good parents, eh?

Anyway, back to the bike allusion. Well, I got to St. George, united with my parents, we went out to lunch, and then I dropped them off at the car rental place at the airport to pick up the rental car they would drive home to Mesa the next day. And then they led the way to the freeway.

And this is where I felt like I was learning to ride a bike...even though I already knew how to drive...I felt that they were holding on a accompanying me...they even got on the freeway themselves and went along for a mile. And then they let go. They exited and I was learning to ride by myself. It was kinda tender. I spent the first little bit of the driving thinking about my parents and how blessed I am to have them. They are good to me. They are good examples of faith, service, and so many other great attributes. Its been a good ride and they have started me off well.