Category: Moments, Thoughts, Life

The speaker paused and said, “You sit around whining and complaining saying, ‘Why doesn’t God use me?’ (pause) Because you don’t know nothin’! Would you use you?”  Each time I replay it in my mind, I laugh.

Our world is full of experts who don’t know nothin’. This doesn’t prevent them from shouting their non-expertise from the rooftops. There are a handful of individuals who truly are experts, we don’t hear about them much – they have no need to shout.

I wonder if there is a course offered to the true experts on dealing with the experts who don’t know nothin’. I envision the textbook being very large to compensate for the lack of pages. There’s not much to say on the subject besides simple concepts such as:

1. Don’t bother
2. It’s a waste of your time.
3. They won’t listen anyway.
4. You have more important things to do.
5. Just keep learning, they’ll figure it out someday.

I want to be a true expert. I want to know what I believe about life. And when I don’t, I want the guts to be able to say, “Don’t know about that yet, so I can’t comment.” I want to be so confident in what I know that I stop getting angry when I hear the experts who don’t know nothin’ shouting. I guess I need to take the course on dealing with the experts who don’t know nothin’. After all, most of what they say is non-sense; and as a wise old man once told me, “You can’t make sense of non-sense!”

I am wondering, would you use you?

 

We are on our way! For those who saw the post, “If it’s right, it’s right!.” we’ve taken the first steps.

If it’s right, it’s right!

www.jjunctions.wordpress.com

In an earlier blog; Hit the ball, Drag Harry, I wrote that I was no longer dragging around my version of Harry.  This week I’ve had a new realization; others apparently felt I should not have let Harry go, so they picked him up and keep trying to give him back to me!

At first this stirred up some big emotions, and by doing so, I had another realization. I don’t recall ever feeling such emotions as, anger, frustration, and sadness without a huge portion of hurt being mixed in. Since I dropped Harry off, the hurt part seems to have departed as well.

It’s interesting to feel anger without feeling wounded in some way. It’s weird to feel sadness without thinking, “look what you did to me.” Well, it’s only weird for those of us that have spent many years being wounded or victims or selfish.

I dropped Harry a while back and promised not to pick him up again. I never thought someone else would feel the need to pick him up and give him back. Part of being  free is realizing that’s their choice.  So go ahead, rescue poor Harry. Shove him in the cart with the other Harrys you’ve picked up along the way.  But I gotta say, you can only haul so many Harry’s around before your golf cart will capsize.

There are two sides to all games, the offence and the defense. Too often, there also seems to be two sides to every relationship, conversation and business transaction; there’s an offence and a defense.  It amazes me that there are those so skilled in taking control of the game by playing offence they seem to leave the other side totally confused. Some are so gifted in playing offense they manager to get an entire group of people running around in circles trying to protect each other.

I want to get really good at playing offense. I want to be the one who asks the questions that make the other side run, to stumble all over themselves as they try to explain themselves. And when there is guilt involved, I want to protect the innocent by playing the best offence ever.

I have to remind myself to stop running after the one with the ball, it only keeps me on the defense.  Perhaps by not running, those playing offence will realize the rules have changed and the game has shifted! Maybe I need to begin playing a different game!  Yep, I gotta get better at playing offence!

 

As I entered the airport front entrance, I noticed the line. Twenty minutes later, I realized that the same two people were still standing at the same two check-in counters, no one was moving. I also felt the restlessness growing in the crowd.

There was a lady who was standing at the end of the line; with a, “This is ridicules!” she dragged her luggage and made her own line, got the attention of someone behind the counter and was taken care of. She clearly was an Alpha dog, (well, dog is a nice way to put it.)

We were asked to divide ourselves into two lines: one for final destination flights and one for connecting flights. This caused the forming of six lines. We had become a herd waiting to be fed.

An hour later it finally my turn, I had made it to the feeding trough. I also realized that there was a herd of people crowded in behind me. I moved an inch, they moved an inch. I took a step, they took a step. I breathed, they took another step. I could feel the stampede about to erupt.

Three hours later my fellow travelers and I were now ready to board the plane. The same herd crowded the counter. Today I wanted to be at the top of the food chain – those who boarded first. Ready to be leashed to seat 2C, I opened the overhead and turned to grasp my carry-on. The woman behind me threw her bag in my spot and announced she was sitting in 2A. She may have been the pup of the Alpha dog.

At first I wanted to blame this untamed group of travelers on the culture of the area I had been visiting. But that would be unfair. I think it represents the small and busy world most people allow themselves to live in. It sounds cliché to say it’s about stopping and smelling the roses, but it really is. Today there seemed to be more of a need for this herd to trample the rose garden then there was taking time to appreciate it.

In a few moments they will open the doors and we will make our way off the plane. This will be done in an orderly fashion simply because the airline has created corrals for all of us to walk through. Some will be meeting family; some will be making their way to yet another plane.  I will make my way through the crowd, chuckling at the folks who stop at the top of the escalator, unaware that there are people coming up behind them; the herd that doesn’t realized there is more than one door to go in and out, and the woman who passes the line waiting to use the restroom, unaware that there is a line. And I will be grateful that I no longer live in a small, busy world.

There’s an old proverb that says, When the student is ready, the teacher will come.  For most of my life I have lived feeling ready and wondering why no one was showing up!

The teacher in this proverb can be a multitude of things.  It can be a simple idea, an opportunity, an answer, a realization. I love when the light goes on and people make a connection. It’s great when it happens in my life and even better when it happens in the lives of others. We watch someone struggle, trying to figure out the next step. Some even seek advice; they don’t need to look too far since advice is everywhere and it’s free. How many times have I heard myself say, “If they would only listen to me.”

It is usually those of us on the outside who become more frustrated than the person waiting for the teacher. We sit on the sidelines, yelling out what we believe is their next move. “You should…” starts our conversations. Then suddenly, with no warning, the “teacher” shows up and the student learns and we walk away shaking our heads.

Why does it seem as if it takes so long? It’s the readiness training.  What a mess we make when we force someone into our plan, when we give instruction based on what we would do rather than on what may be best for them.

When the student is ready, the teacher will come. When I am ready, it will happen. How do we live in such simplicity? By focusing on our readiness, not wasting our time and energy worrying about when and how the teacher is going to arrive.