Are you wondering yet about this word, ICKY? Actually, it is an acronym that comes from an article I read in Reader's Digest years ago. The writer recounted that when his daughter reached driving age, his concern was overwhelming. His confidence in trusting her on the road, behind the wheel, in control of a two-ton monster was near nil. So he read up in journals, checked statistics, talked to police and, in the end, came to the conclusion that most motor vehicle accidents involving teenagers resulted from impatience.
He couldn't deal with all the teens on the road, he reasoned, but he could influence one of them. His daughter wanted to learn how to drive? OK, he would teach her. But first he went out and bought a very small stuffed animal that he presented to her at the beginning of their first foray.
"This," he told her as he placed it in her hand, "is your ICKY. You are to have it in the car whenever you drive somewhere. Before you even start the engine, you must reach out and touch your ICKY." She must promise this, he admonished, or she wouldn't have his permission to get her license.
He looked at her. She looked at him. He waited for her to say she agreed. She was waiting for him to explain what this ICKY business was. There was silence until she finally asked, "Why an ICKY?"
Suddenly, he realized that this whole idea was in his head; it meant nothing to her, and so he explained.
"Your ICKY is your personal reminder that Impatience Can Kill You. You may change its name to something more cool or more clever, but it's your ICKY."
She looked from her father to the ICKY to her father and said, "ICKY. That's clever. Cool, Daddy." She smiled, then reached over and deposited the icon in a place of prominence on the dashboard and touched it with her finger. The first driving lesson had begun.
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