A wonderful tune
Until a wrong note is struck
Then song’s forgotten
Allow me to paint a couple of scenes for you if you will.
She glanced into the hall. Her brow heavy with expectation’s heat and the oppressive warmth from the theatre lights. She caressed the neck of the guitar, gripped with enough strength to hold it secure and her fingers conjured notes from an otherworldly plane. Every chord played to perfection and the one sound in the auditorium came from the magic of her craft.
The crowd held their breath, allowing the music to drown them in collective enchantment. Her pace quickened, the melody consistent, evolving in spiral plumes of harmonic union. Her palms perspired in a never ending stream of nervous sweat. Her guitar slipped, fell.
Gasps exploded in the hall. Soon, mutterings of discontent. The player resumed her piece. The spell broken. No-one listened. She played on. Tears ran unseen to the neck of her dress.
He somersaulted over and over. Many years he’d worked for this moment. His team members applauded whilst he tortured his body with twists, turns and athleticism. The crowd whooped over and over and Greg prepared himself for the big assault of the routine. He sprinted, planted his hands, spun and bounded into the sky before planting his feet with no hint of a stumble. The applause deafening, one last part to the program. One last leap from the gymnast and when he landed his left leg gave way and he tumbled to the ground in an unedifying jumble of limbs in disarray. Sighs of disappointment rang out and the smile ready to burst out destroyed into an avalanche of shame. His coach, shaking his head in disbelief and the scores far lower than the perfect ten.
She made another save. Tonight, Elaine stopped everything United threw at them. The scores locked at 0-0. They still had a chance. Wave after wave came at the goal and she dived, caught, harried and screamed at her team to keep the scores level. Another long shot. Another save. Five minutes left in normal time and in extra time, anything could happen and if penalties came along, Elaine knew she’d prevail. Danielle played a pass back to Elaine. Elaine went to control the ball and to her horror it hit a divot, bounced over her foot and nestled into the centre of the goal. She fell to her knees whilst Danielle held her head in her hands. All Elaine’s efforts dismissed, she’d cost her team the cup.
There we are. A few unusual scenarios and no doubt you’re considering why is the writer putting these scenarios together. The answer is somewhat simple. It demonstrates to me the folly of human thinking. We are so easy to forget when we do something right only for it to be supplanted for a mistake, a slip, a series of slips. All the good is dismissed as though it was of no use at all.
Look at the guitar player playing the most perfect routine and how the crowd were enthralled. Look at the gymnast holding it all together with a spell bounding routine of extreme difficulty. Then we have Elaine keeping her team in a match with her prowess in goal. In an instant all of the approval, acclaim gone due to an error. This is human thought isn’t it? Don’t humans tend to dwell on what’s gone wrong rather than what we do well?
I guess it is an indoctrination we are all introduced to from a young age and it pervades through to our working lives. I recall once hearing of a series of meetings at where I worked to find out who to put the blame on regarding some discordance within the organisation. Why did they not work out where the problem lay, fix that and get on? Oh no, someone needed to be blamed! Then you’d find a scenario where you’d put together a lot of work and what gets remembered? Perhaps that one error you made in a slew of output.
Isn’t this sad? If we are to be this so called enlightened species is it not right we give credit for where things go well? Could that audience not have cheered loud when the guitar player carried on playing? Could the gymnast’s team mates not have gathered round him and praise him for a brilliant routine until he run into bad luck? Could Elaine’s manager have not gone over to her and said that was one of the best goalkeeper displays he’d seen until her slip? Well, yes and no. We could indeed do that but it never happens does it? Often it’s the critical path we take and that’s what humans do so well.
So my message to us is it’s OK to make errors. Lord, I’ve made plenty and guess what still do. Yet I’d like to think I do some things right too and I’ll say the same to you as well. Praise yourself for what you do well, praise others too and if a gaffe or two happens that’s OK too. Look at the larger scenario and look where these moments sit within there. Maybe then, you’ll see these perceived errors, irritations are meant to happen, meant to be part of the whole and the imperfections make the perfection, for aren’t they needed too?
Makes you think doesn’t it? On that note I shall end. Sweet Adieu and much love.