Missing the Obvious Things in Life

Not long ago I was sitting in my car in a parking lot reading a book, passing time while waiting for an appointment. I was parked between two big pickup trucks, both facing south. There were open parking spaces directly in front of each truck so when it was time to leave both drivers could easily put their truck into forward and simply drive straight out of their parking stalls and out of the parking lot.


When the first driver came back, he shifted into forward and drove straight out of his parking space without any problem. I found it interesting when the second driver returned a few minutes later. He missed the obvious, simple method of pulling out of his parking space. Rather than pulling forward and driving straight out, he put his truck in reverse and tried backing up. Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough room to get out in one simple procedure, so he pulled back into the space and tried again. He had to go forward and backwards two or three times before he got out. He missed the obvious and thereby complicated a simple action.


Since this experience occurred several years ago, I have taken an interest in watching people pull out of parking spaces with the simple maneuver of putting the gear in the forward position and pulling straight out. I haven’t kept track of the comparable statistics of drivers pulling forward or backing up, but my unscientific observation is that it’s about 50/50.


Maybe getting a truck out of a parking space isn’t worthy of a story in this post but it illustrates a point. How often do we miss the simple and the obvious things in life? How often have our children seen things differently than us and solved what we thought was a difficult problem?


I am reminded of a well-known story. It seems that several years ago a semi truck got stuck going under a cement bridge. It was only a couple of inches too high, but it was stuck indeed.


The driver got out to look at the problem, the police arrived at the scene, the trucking company sent someone to assess the situation and provide any help they could. A debate occurred about the best way to get the truck out of this situation. As they discussed this problem there didn’t appear to be any easy solution. It just so happened that a boy who was riding his bike in the area stopped to observe what the commotion was all about. He watched for a few minutes, then went up to one of the men who was actively involved in the problem-solving process and said, “Mr, why don’t you just let some air out of the tires?”


The problem was solved by recognizing the obvious solution, which evaded the experts.


There are times when the simplicity of a child’s perspective is the best approach, yet do we take time to see it and incorporate it? What would happen if we took more time to step out of the box and assess the situation from their perspective? Perhaps we would find that it is us that missed the obvious.



Happy Failing Forward,