I learned to drive when I was ten. Most fun was driving the standard shift of our 48 half ton grey Ford truck. Let the clutch out slowly in first gear, speed up enough to clutch it smoothly into second gear, then again finally into the third gear.
It was important too to know how to gear down on hills! The most intriguing gear my dad called ‘Bull low’. When hauling grain at harvest time or to the elevator in our little town of Davin, it was the gear to begin with. A slow powerful gear.
I think I have used all those gears in my life especially during the past months adapting to a new way of being pastor in my parish. It has been a formidable six months.