A Year Without a Ding!

In June 2014 we purchased a new Prius C car, and I challenged myself to try and get through an entire year without a scratch or ding. I go to the gym almost every day where hundreds of members attend. The parking lot has narrow parking spaces to squeeze in as many parked cars as possible.

My previous car had numerous parking lot mishaps. You had to deal with adjacent car doors slamming against your car and people carrying oversize gym bags that scrape along the side of vehicles. I’ve now owned the new car for 9 months with no dings. Only three more months to go and then I can relax. Well, maybe.

My gym parking strategy is simple. I park next to islands and other barrier on one side that allow only having to deal with a parked car on other side. The logic is to reduce the potential incident rate by 50%. I know this sounds a bit obsessive-compulsive, but I always love a challenge even if I have to drive around the gym parking lot for 30 minutes to find the “perfect” spot.

I recall the movie Julie and Julia which chronicles the challenge of a young blogger named Julie Powell who aspired to cook all 524 recipes in Chef Julia Child's Art of French Cooking cookbook in 365 days. It was a fun movie in which I concluded the blogger had obsessive-compulsive tendencies.

The sad part about my car ding challenge is that I had a similar objective to read through the Bible in one year. I did not succeed. I skipped parts with names that were impossible to pronounce. I found myself wanting to read only the familiar parts or at least those that gave me comfort. I used apps. Reminders were sent to my email. Where was my obsessive-compulsive behavior when I needed it?

Lord, help me to be more obedient to the daily reading of Scripture. Dings are not critical! The Word of God overcomes all things … even a ding!

Robert Parlante
March 26, 2015

P.S. In three months I'll let you know if I got dinged!