QUESTION:

Who is in the driving seat?

I am not a good passenger. Simply, I trust me more than I do anyone else behind the wheel. I once drove through the night nonstop from Adelaide to Melbourne with three women friends all asleep. Only because I didn't trust any of them not to sleep at the wheel. 

But the above has nothing at all to do with actual driving. It asks... who is guiding the vehicle that is your life?

Or what.

I started with the car metaphor so let's continue with it for simplicity.

I am currently a passenger in mine. Necessity has forced this on me. And I'm not even a front seat passenger; someone else called dibs first. So I am in the back. The driver has control and he insists we go this way. "This way is better for everyone."

Ummm... Not for me?

But there's a natural hierarchy that forms within every group- despite the notion of a group being level and democratic. A similar hierarchy forms within immediate and extended families too. There's always a top dog- be it mother, uncle or grandfather. You don't mess with them. They dictate the family's direction- whether through affluence, force of will or status; whatever made them top dog.

Between couples too. Often one will have greater influence over the other. One may in time become the decision-maker, ergo the driver.

It's not even people often, it is sheer circumstances doing the driving. Or a dream. A force inside which compels every action to be directed toward the desired goal. Or a Cause. Tenacious driving from within for the desired result. (Writing fits nicely here.)

Something or someone is always driving us. We've yet to reach the state of autonomy our cars are gaining. There has to be a driver behind our wheel. Sure, there are periods when we feel we are the ones; the top dogs. But that's the thing with life- it alters circumstances on a whim and we must adjust accordingly: from driver to passenger to driver.

Let me tell you, sometimes it becomes intolerable- this being a passenger. Other roads beckon, other destinations lure. They fly past the side window and I get to watch them disappear... wondering where they might have led- or to whom. And what might have been?

Who or what is driving you?