- Image via Wikipedia
I have always been pretty clumsy. I didn’t know how clumsy until I met my wife. She has a way to showcase nearly every one of my falls and mishaps. She does this by not falling and bumping into walls and tripping herself up. By contrast, I look like an uncoordinated version of the hunchback of Notre Dame.
On one particular evening, I was quietly drinking diet Dr. Pepper while my wife was helping her friend put together shawls for a wedding. As I went to put down my drink, I found a way to bat it up in the air and spray all of the soda on the room around me. The soda hit it’s mark on the shawls quite nicely. Everyone was thrilled.
I found that in that moment I was utterly responsible for spilling out what I had to ruin what other people were working on. We were able to salvage those shawls, but there was nothing we could do to fully get rid of that sweet syrupy smell of soda.
It makes me wonder about other spills that we make. We are clumsy in our attempts to hold on to our own ideas. We let the least tactful thoughts fly out of our hands and land on what others are working on. We practically spray our ideas on reform or lean development out with little regard for when and where they may be mow useful. We have a scattershot approach to change because we let our clumsy natures take over our better judgement.
I don’t know the answer to making change and traction a bigger part of our lives, but spilling isn’t it. Each new idea should be sipped at and swallowed, savored and supplied as real solutions for real problems (being thirsty for doing things better).
I guess I am just trying to pledge myself to being less clumsy, to taking my time with each hold of he cup. I may not ever be as graceful as my wife, but with a little luck, I won’t have to apologize and clean up the mess every few days when I have my next spasm of drink shaking ideas. I’m okay just to hold on and sip for now.
