I have to admit, learning how to drive in your 50s is no joke. It’s incredibly humbling. My accomplishments don’t matter here and I am constantly being told how to do something that is not innate. My perfectionism is being challenged big time!
Honestly, I have never felt like I needed to learn how to drive. I live in NYC where there are buses and trains going everywhere AND my husband takes me anywhere I want to go.
My friends keep telling me, “you are going to have so much freedom, Nellie!” But that never motivated me. It wasn’t until my husband told me he could use help with the long drives to Vermont (our cousin’s home, where we sometimes vacation), and when he hurt his achilles heel and couldn’t drive us anywhere, when I realized I needed to help him with the driving to be of service to the family, not because I needed freedom. But how can I get motivated? Visual imagery!
I am a visual person so I gathered images of people driving from magazines and pinned it on my bulletin board.
I bought a journal with a cover of a dog driving. If he could do it, so could I, Iol.
I made a prayer collage about driving.
And then I thought of Augusta Savage, a sculptor of African American descent who learned to drive at 48. I also started this driving journey at 48 but it’s been an up and down hill battle. Even so, an artist of color, who started on this journey in her late 40s became my saint. So much so, that when I told a colleague about this whole thing, she incarnated this idea and Augusta Savage was canonized, in our heads, as the saint of driving.
Why am I saying all of this? Because I believe in the power of art to move you you in areas of everyday life. I see myself in other people’s art and artist stories. They move me to action just as I am hoping that Augusta Savage’s driving story will continue to move me to driving action.
And by the way, I finally did pass my road test after my 4th try! Not quite at age 48 like Augusta Savage, but I’ll take it!