My 6 year-old daughter, Josephine, REFUSES to learn to ride her bicycle, mostly because the act of doing so doesn’t make any sense to her.
How is it possible that she can balance and steer and turn and start herself by herself without falling — SMACK — on the asphalt.
“You’re not going to let go of me, right? Right? You’ll hold on? And you’ll run with me, right? You promise you won’t let me fall and even if I fall you won’t let me be hurt? Promise? Promise PROMISE?”
I try and assure her, as best I can that its going to be alright, but we keep ending up getting emotional… and frustrated… and angry with each other because I CAN’T actually “promise PROMISE” she won’t get hurt and she can’t seem to imagine the possibility that she can DO something she’s never done before.
Faith. It all comes down to faith.
And so the two of us struggle along… me running and holding and catching and trying my best to tell her it will someday happen, even though both of us are starting to believe that its NEVER GOING TO–
Wait. Hang on…