"If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.”

– Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian architect, painter and sculptor

The car lurched forward, shuddered a couple times and then stalled. My son leaned his forehead against the steering wheel and sighed.

“It’s no use, Dad. I am never going to get the hang of this.”

My son was determined to drive my car with its five-speed manual transmission. I had driven the car to an empty parking lot, provided detailed instruction, and then switched seats with him. After a number of stalls and jerky starts, he was ready to call it quits.

“I thought this would be easy and fun,” he confessed. “It’s neither.”

“It’s like anything,” I e...

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