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How to drive like a tightrope walker
May. 26th, 2025 03:23 pmOne of the things that roommate has been doing to try and build more life skills and independence is learning how to drive. So far it's been mostly practice with me, as I've had an extended period of unemployment and therefore had time to take them out during the week in the car. We'll be moving them toward private driving lessons, as I'll be starting a new job soon, and eventually my wife and I are planning to head to Canada in the next year or two, so a more structured and focused Life Improvement Scheme is going to be necessary to best prepare them for once they have to go elsewhere.
During one of our recent practice sessions, I had pitched a specific neighborhood that would be a good practice ground, and specifically pitched trying to drive there, as it's a very short ways from where we live. They were nervous about it, because the main road off of our neighborhood is a two-lane county route, which can be understandably intimidating. I was the same with my own learning experience back in my hometown. So I drove us to the practice zone, but on the way there I pointed out the relatively low oncoming traffic for the turn. And on the way back after practicing for a decent chunk with single lane residential roads, I had a small lightbulb moment.
Those of you who knew me from cohost may remember the post I made about "the circus faction in your trpg setting". The short version is I watched a video where an experienced circus performer taught a youtuber how to walk tightrope, and I was so impressed by the teacher's physical and mental fortitude that I wrote up a post on how to incorporate those aspects of circus life into characters who have that as part of their background. One of the pieces of advice that he gave was, to paraphrase, "It's the same trick 5 inches off the ground as it is 50 ft off the ground."
Which is to say: if you can keep your balance on the rope the whole time under perfectly safe conditions, then you have the minimum physical skill you need to do the same thing under riskier and more dangerous conditions. You are \*already* capable, you just have to keep your head during the dangerous conditions. The same goes for keeping a car under control on a one lane road. If you can stay in your lane on a one-lane road, you can do the same thing on a multi-lane road, once you know how to keep your cool. Good life advice that I'm gonna try to remember for lots of things, tbh.
During one of our recent practice sessions, I had pitched a specific neighborhood that would be a good practice ground, and specifically pitched trying to drive there, as it's a very short ways from where we live. They were nervous about it, because the main road off of our neighborhood is a two-lane county route, which can be understandably intimidating. I was the same with my own learning experience back in my hometown. So I drove us to the practice zone, but on the way there I pointed out the relatively low oncoming traffic for the turn. And on the way back after practicing for a decent chunk with single lane residential roads, I had a small lightbulb moment.
Those of you who knew me from cohost may remember the post I made about "the circus faction in your trpg setting". The short version is I watched a video where an experienced circus performer taught a youtuber how to walk tightrope, and I was so impressed by the teacher's physical and mental fortitude that I wrote up a post on how to incorporate those aspects of circus life into characters who have that as part of their background. One of the pieces of advice that he gave was, to paraphrase, "It's the same trick 5 inches off the ground as it is 50 ft off the ground."
Which is to say: if you can keep your balance on the rope the whole time under perfectly safe conditions, then you have the minimum physical skill you need to do the same thing under riskier and more dangerous conditions. You are \*already* capable, you just have to keep your head during the dangerous conditions. The same goes for keeping a car under control on a one lane road. If you can stay in your lane on a one-lane road, you can do the same thing on a multi-lane road, once you know how to keep your cool. Good life advice that I'm gonna try to remember for lots of things, tbh.
