Wouldn't It Be Great If Life Came with Training Wheels?

I went bowling today with my kid.

It was actually very pleasant. There was no smoking or alcohol. Usually when I leave a bowling alley I feel like I need to be scrubbed down.

The thing I found most interesting is how we made bowling EASY for everyone.

The bowling facility has bumpers. This allows anybody to throw or roll the ball down the lane without going off course and the ball falling into the gutter. It's like training wheels but for bowling.

Wouldn't it be nice if we had bumpers in life? You know in case you get off course. I guess it's nice for the little kids because at least they can knock over some pins and feel good about themselves.

Or a novel idea is the parent can teach the kid how to bowl.

But wait there was more. The facility has an apparatus called a ball ramp. This "ball ramp" is used for people who are in wheel chairs or have muscle deficiencies. This makes sense to me and is a wonderful aid. This apparatus allows you to line it up in front of the lane, set the ball on top and roll the ball down the ramp to your desired striking point. The problem is kids and adults who were NOT in wheel chairs or suffer from some type of disability were using the ramp. They didn't even bowl! They didn't even try. It's like sitting at the slot machine and you can push a button versus pulling a lever.

You might be wondering where I am going with all this. Just follow the thought process (if you dare). We have fast food versus cooking, microwaves versus ovens; e-mail versus snail mail, cell phones versus landlines and the list goes on. We have made everything fast and easy. This is considered progress and in some ways it is great. But have we made it too easy?

This doesn't happen with just bowling. This happens in the karate schools, gymnastic schools, little league, etc. Everyone is a winner! Everyone needs to "feel good". Everyone gets a trophy just for showing up. What message does that send to our kids?

I try to teach the kids that life sometimes has a tendency to knock you around a little bit but you have to roll with the punches. If you get knocked down, get to your feet. If you get knocked flat to the floor first get to your knees then stand up again. It might take awhile but just keep trying. If you give the kids everything they desire and make everything in life easy for them what will happen when they experience their first failure at a sport or a class? Their world will come crushing down because they won't have the coping mechanism to handle it.

Can you imagine in life if we had bumpers to surround us if we get off course or an apparatus to line our life up just right so we don't have to work at it, so we don't fail, so we don't get a little dirty, so we don't learn about our selves. Life would be great or would it?

The best bumpers we can have are our brains, our desires, our dreams, our goals, our education, our families and friends (only the nice positive ones), our teachers, our spiritual advisors, our mentors and our coaches. We'll still get off course but hopefully our "life bumpers" will align us properly and direct us on the right path. It is not as easy as bowling with bumpers but it is a lot more rewarding and satisfying.