I was a home economics major at Ohio State many years ago, but I remember well many of the classes and especially some of the professors. My home management professor spoke constantly of the need to be flexible, but was herself quite rigid in her expectations. So it was with trepidation when I had to tell her that the coffee pot was missing from the home management house in which I was living that semester. While quizzing me about the possibilities of where it might be, she also asked me what I had served for breakfast. Rather frustrated by her attitude, I retorted that we were flexible and had hot tea instead of coffee. Rather than being reprimanded for being smart aleck about this, she was delighted with my answer and quoted it to the class. Henceforth, I have tried to be flexible when encountering a dilemma, but sometimes I still miss the obvious solution. Such happened this week.
This week our Administrative Board met for the first time this year so staff members were busy collecting all the necessary information and reports. One person called to tell me that she was having computer problems and didn’t know how to get me her report. After several attempts, a co-worker tried scanning the report and sending it to me. This really didn’t work. In the midst of the conversation as to how I might get this report, it suddenly occurred to the co-worker that it could be sent as a fax. With hearty laughs from three sheepish persons, the problem was solved and I once again had a lesson about being aware of alternative answers to life’s questions. It would seem that the pilgrim needs to be ready to take another path and to be prepared for where it might lead. I wonder when I will learn this?
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3 comments:
I have been thinking about flexibilty quite often lately as clergy have turned in the Advisory response Forms. I hope that someday I will understand that I have to be flexible to be faithful to God.
When I first started a supervisory job, one of my staff gave me some sticky notes with the caption, "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be bent out of shape." Ten years later I still have that reminder on my desk and have found it to be true so often.
It is interesting, though, how many "DUH" moments I have--wonder if it is a function of age:) I prefer to see it as higher-ordered thinking not necessarily in tune with the obvious!!
One of the books that has most profoundly impacted my life is Stephen Covey's "Seven Habits for Highly Effective People". Habit No. 4, which helps lead us from a state of independce to one of interdepency, is "Think Win/Win". In essence, Covey urges us to realize that the issue does not have to be one in which your view or mine prevails; rather, there may well be a third view which achieves both your objective and mine. While his point was that we should not spend so much time and energy trying to win arguments and cause our opponents to lose but rather focus on the primary goal, a major lesson for me was also that I need always to be flexible, to be open to new and different approaches to solving the issues in front of me.
Congratulations on "discovering" the fax. Wouldn't it be great if all of our dilemmas could be solved so simply?
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