Like a lot of you, I’ve been driving since I was sixteen.  It’s an automatic skill.  I don’t have to think through all the steps: start the car, steer, brake, check mirrors and all that anymore. Driving is second nature.  But one Saturday morning, while driving around doing errands and listening to NPR’s “Car Talk,” I learned that something I’ve been doing from the first time I got behind the wheel is wrong. I was taught that when I made a turn, I should do it by crossover: one hand on the wheel, the other crossing it to grab the wheel and move it.

But now with air bags that’s become a no-no. In an accident: bag deploys, smashes arm which smashes nose and face. Not good. Now the method is feed-the-wheel from one hand to the other leaving arm and face out of harm’s way. Great! So I’m relearning how to drive and making some progress. I do catch myself doing the old crossover sometimes.  That’s understandable because what I’m trying to change is habitual behavior and that’s not easy. It takes time and patience and practice and the belief that the change is worth the trouble. So I learn all over again that the unexamined life can be a pitfall in a car and in my life. Auto-pilot is, in fact, not a particularly helpful way either to drive a car or to steer my way through the life of faith.