Where youth has an advantage

As a rule, people mature with age. The violent sometimes find peace. The impatient learn to count to 10. The all-knowing come to realize how little they truly know. But in one facet of our lives, it is the youngest who have it over the rest of us.

There is a driving school in my not-so-fair city that picks up and drops off students in a parking lot near my house. So I often spot student drivers learning the ropes while I'm out walking the dogs in our neighborhood.

The sight of these kids behind the wheel is downright touching. All of them are very attentive. Some of them look quite nervous. They have both hands on the wheel, drive at a reasonable speed, always use turn signals, and (most amazingly of all) stop for pedestrians.

For many, this behavior won't last. Once the lessons are behind them and they have licenses in hand, everything these kids have learned will fly out the window. And it only gets worse with the passage of time, as drivers become more and more aggressive until old age overtakes them and their eyesight and reflexes begin to fail. They are equally dangerous, then, but for different reasons.

So I enjoy seeing student drivers doing their thing, because that period of caution, restraint and courtesy is so short-lived. Sort of like that all-too-brief chapter in our lives when we still believe in Santa Claus. Yes, Virginia, there are good drivers out there. But they'll grow out of it soon enough.