Some Talents Are God-given

Some are not.

When Ryan & I ran the Lake Winnipesaukee 1/2 marathon we hitched a ride to New Hampshire with our friends Georgina and Jeanette. They just happened to be going up there for a getaway and at the last minute, we crashed it.

On the way up, we talked Georgina into running the 1/2 marathon with us. She's a runner, but hadn't been training for anything and hadn't really even been running that much at the time. She complied saying that "it might be fun."

Due to some confusing car/race number logistics, we lost Georgina at the starting line and didn't meet up with her until the last 1/2 mile when we saw her jogging toward us so she could re-finish the race, but this time, with us. We asked her how her race went and were surprised to hear that she took 3rd place. Not only had she placed but during the last mile, she had slowed down because she didn't want to win.

I was impressed and still am.

Later, I asked her how she did it, how it felt to run a race without much competition, and what things I could do to be a faster long-distance runner. She gave me a lot of tips, encouraged me, but finally (probably because of all my questions) had to break the news to me in the kindest way she knew how:

"I was just born like this. You might get a little bit better, but your either a runner who wins races or you're not."

She must have noticed my 10 minute mile.

So, although I haven't given up running entirely, I've been trying to throw the bushels off a talent or two by thinking about a few things I'm naturally very good at, like:

• Shaking my eyes at an incredible rate of speed (Don't stare too long, it might put you in a trance)

• NOT crying while cutting onions (this one might have to do with my contacts...but that was God-given in a way too, right?)

• Being able to imagine the perfect dessert to follow any given meal.

• And probably my best known and most useful (and what prompted this post since we've been borrowing Kim Gardner's car for the past month): Parallel parking.

See?

I parked that car in that spot without touching any of the cars around me.

Impressed? It's not me. I was just born this way. Okay, forgive me. It's probably my best talent, though.

I've tried to teach people. I have, I've tried to give. But perhaps that talent of teaching is buried under too many bushels. In any case, if you happen to need a tutorial, see if this helps:

1-Pick a spot that your car will fit into.

2-Line up your rear bumper with the bumper of the car next to you.

3-Look over your right shoulder.

4-Reverse and crank your wheel.

5-(The key and MOST important step) as soon as the corner of your trunk is pointed directly in the middle of the car behind you, start cranking your wheel to the other side no matter if it looks like you're going to hit the car in front of you. (Note: it ALWAYS looks like you're going to hit the car in front of you)

6-Reverse until you are nearly bumper to bumper with the car behind you (Note #2: You can tell how close you are by how small your brake lights/reverse lights reflection is in the car behind you.)

7-Straighten out.

8-Do this all in one continuous motion (besides the gears switching) and in less than a minute.

Note #3: talking on the phone while parallel parking is like that part in the Bible when Samson gets all of his hair cut off. All parallel parking powers are lost when the phone is near you. It's your kryptonite...oh, sorry, wrong story.

Now please, go and do thou like-wise.