I Do Like You

"And when you've reached that broken promised land, and all your dreams fall through your hands, you know that it's too late to change you're mind. Because you've paid the price to come so far, just to wind up where you are, and you're still just across that borderline."



Thanks go out this week to Jason Koffman for contributing a topical New York Times article. It's an article that should be an interest to many of our employees as well as an article par excellence, one that got me thinking which granted, I don't do often enough these days. Several of the themes in the article are worth spending a little time to ponder...



The article pointed out there are still people out there who reject the convenience and so called superiority of CDs as opposed to LPs. Technology often is just accepted as progress, a step forward. Most of the time, a technological advance makes things easier, but seldom do we think about how, when things become easier to do, often that comfort leads to laziness; of finding yet another reason, another excuse not to think.



I recently ran into a personal example of this very weakness that is so easy to succumb to. I took a state test for my current position. Among the areas covered was a section on spelling. I've always considered myself an above average speller (despite what you all have witnessed on these pages). Yet when I took the test, that was far and away the part that was hardest for me. Everything looked wrong in a dyslexic sort of way



Upon reflection, it dawned on me that perhaps my dependence on the spell checker on my computer might be a culprit in this problem. (I'm now thoroughly convinced that particular feature is an invention that was developed in Satan's laboratory.) It's become too easy, too convenient to click on a button and think all the words will come out right. Why waste the time looking something up in a dictionary or taking the time to get it right the first time, when you can have it all done for you so easily in the end? And that my friends, is the dependence and danger of word processing packages. Consider it a speed bump on the information super highway.



Our culture, our way of thinking has come to adopt the belief the quicker something can be accomplished, the better off we all are. The picture of progress is always associated with going forward although any change in technology means something else is lost along the way. My spelling anecdote for example, points out we seem to have forgotten that patience not only is a virtue, it's a close friend of accuracy. And an accurate person is a satisfied person. We have come to accept that it is a strength to get out in front of the crowd, demonstrate through saved time we can better channel ourselves to reach our full potential. But sometimes it really is best to lag behind the rest, to be a follower, to witness the mistakes others make ahead of you, and then learn from those mistakes and not make the same ones. We are taught early on, and constantly reminded and have reinforced in our minds, that to be number one, to be the leader is what we must strive for. Yet another myth that is hard to break away from, let alone discount.

The people ahead of us sometimes actually can offer some insight, some guidance in what we can expect. We all want to be unique, to celebrate our individuality and creativity, but at the same time it often is prudent to believe the phrase, "I do like you" because you, meaning the other, just might be right. If you made it through, I might too. Listen to what the man said: "Love is fine for all we know, for all we know our love will grow."



Someday we might actually come to accept the lesson that is the backbone of Catholicism: You have to suffer to come out ahead, to get to heaven. The conclusion reached might be that hard work and perseverance can be rewards by themselves. Those that struggle often times gain insight and wisdom not available to the general population. A former coworker of ours, the inscrutable one, revealed to me her belief that what she lacked in her life was a map maker, someone to give her direction. All these years later I'm happy to report back that it is that very feeling of being perpetually lost that can be the meaning behind it all. To become dependent on an outside source may be a temptation but it often times is better to rely on what is already inside. "Though it takes a lot of power to make a big tree grow, doesn't need a pot of knowledge, for a seed knows what a seed must know."



The grass might be greener on the other side, but it can also be a hell of a lot more colorful closer to home. Hard work and a good attitude just might be as important as pushing the right buttons. Often it isn't so much the end result, the final product that is what we take away and gives our experiences their value. Sometimes it is the history of the journey itself that can be so rewarding. Just like our friend the LP, the sound might contain less clarity, but that doesn't mean it is less pure, and by its very flaws, it can be appreciated much more. That which lasts can be of great value to us.