Reading and Mowing
...lp getting the thing started and took off in speed 3. I mowed the whole ditch line in speed 3. There were times when I had to put both of my legs on one side of the mower to keep from getting beat by the tree limbs and the massive weeds. It was kind of exciting in speed 3. It is a wonder that one of those tree limbs didn’t knock me right off that mower. There was one spot where the ground sunk down and this great big root was in the way. I went lickety split through all of that doing the speed 3 that I had been taught to use when I was mowing the field. It was kind of exciting, but I could have hurt myself or I could have torn up the mower going so fast. Wouldn’t I have been better off if I had slowed down to speed 2 or even speed 1? I wasn’t trying to be Evil Keneval – I was just doing what I thought was right. I never thought about slowing down. Later, I asked my husband about how I did. He said he thought that I mowed too fast. He said I was bouncing around and that was bad for the mower. He suggested I slow it down next time. I told him that I just never thought of it. That’s when I became aware of the fact that the mower has 5 speeds plus reverse, and you adjust your speed for the type of job you are doing. When you’re mowing the field, you can go in speed 5 because there are no obstacles and it doesn’t really matter if you miss a couple of spots. It is just a field. When you are mowing under a tree, you need to go speed 2 so you can control the branches with your hands as you go under them. There are times when you miss a spot and you need to back up to get the spot you missed. Those speeds are on that mower for a reason. You don’t mow everything at the same speed. Once while I was mowing I started to compare mowing to reading. (Your mind really has time to contemplate many things while you are mowing because it doesn’t take a lot of thought to mow a field). There are different speeds in reading. When you first start reading, you have to have someone to help you get started. Sometimes you forget what you have been taught, and you have to get someone to remind you. If you read everything in one speed, you don’t do a very good job of it. Some material is very hard to understand and you need to slow down. Some material is easy and you can speed up. Sometimes you are reading to find a specific answer to a question, and you can go in speed 5 until you come to the place where you think the answer might be, and then you can slow down to speed 2. If you don’t understand something when you are reading or you just weren’t paying attention, you can go in reverse and read that section again. That’s like missing a spot when you are mowing. Just back it up and go over it again. When you are reading and when you are mowing, you have to pay attention. If you take your eyes off of your path you are mowing for a couple of seconds, you will miss a spot. It is the same for reading. If you take your mind off of what you are reading for a paragraph or two, you are going to miss something. Then you will have to go back and mow it – I mean read it again. You can take this mowing and reading analogy a step further. Before you mow, there are some things you must do before you get started. You need to check your gas, your oil and your tire pressure. In reading, you should glance at what you are going to read. You should look at the pictures and ask yourself some questions. What is this about? What do I want to learn from this? You don’t just jump right in and start reading. You have to get your mind ready to connect to what you are going to read. That is what the experts say you have to do. What you read has to connect to something in your memory in order for it to stick. It is the same with mowing in a way. You wouldn’t mow without gas in your tank, oil in your engine and pressure in your tires would you? While you are mowing, you are steadily thinking. Sometimes you are thinking about something that is totally separate from mowing. That’s ok when you mow, but when you read, you really need to be thinking about what you are reading about. You ...