Just Cut The Wire
I have been mulling over my current situation these past few weeks. Things have been frustrating, more so, because of the load of things that have fallen my way. As they say, it is often times feast of famine. With regard to the complexities of my personal and professional life, it is feast these days. There is too much to do and not enough time.
As I have said in the past, on many a blog here, this sort of situation is compounded by those that can’t do things for themselves and seek others as a resource to help them cope with their problems. These are the needy people in the world. And it may be just me, but it seems like they are getting more and more numerous.
I have often mulled over the horrible thought, that this is the country that rallied and defeated the Nazis and the Japanese in WWII, but I have serious concerns if we could accomplish such a feat again in the future. We seem to be too fractured and liberal minded to be able to form a cohesive unit these days. We want to argue and bicker about things, instead of putting our feelings and personal issues aside for the benefit of the common good.
As I have pondered this, I have looked for the reasons for our demise. The reasons are complex, multifaceted and not that easy to explain. Besides, things change. Things always change, so this just may be a matter of evolution and societal decay. Old cultures have to pass away in order for new ones to take root and flourish.
One of the chords that has struck me with a rather deep and resonate tone is what I have dubbed ‘Fear of Failure’. It seems to be the rallying cry for almost every needy person that comes and asks me to help them. They could figure it out themselves, but they are afraid to fail. As if failure will bring some sort of ridicule upon them or make matters worse. They don’t want to accept blame for not being able to do something, so they look for someone else to shift the blame to.
What they seem to have lost here is the simple fact, if you make no attempt on your own to fix a problem, then you fail by default. Failure is, in of itself, a learning process. No one ever goes through life without making mistakes. It would be a nightmare if we did. I live in fear of meeting the person that is 35 years old and has never made a mistake. That just isn’t natural.
I for one don’t have this problem. If something doesn’t work, I will get out a screwdriver or a crow-bar and start tearing into it to figure out what is wrong with it. My co-workers and peers usually stand wide-eyed and shocked as I do this, muttering the words, “aren’t you afraid you are going to break it?”…..to which I reply, “…it is already broken, staring at it isn’t going to make it work.”
This seems to be the problem. The masses keep looking for the few that have no fear of failure. I just don’t recall our world being like this back in 1941.
yes, it does seem like you're onto something there.
ReplyDeletethats pretty funny... i too have had the same thought about how much our culture has changed since the 40's (particularly when i see something in our society that makes me i'll), and wonder, if called upon again, could we rally like my grandfather did.
ReplyDeletei think not, sadly.
I think all of us at some point or another are afraid of failure but we can't let that prevent us from stopping the things we wish to achieve/pursue.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Looking at your Neflix Queue: Nurse Jackie. I've never seen the show yet but I've been reading about it in various ET magazines and so far it's been getting really good reviews.
I remember one of my professors complaining that he didn't know what to do about this new generation of kids. You give them a failing grade and they burst into tears. You try to give them some constructive criticism, and they have a nervous breakdown. I blame the psychiatric crap from the 80's that pushed everything and everyone being "positive" all the time.
ReplyDelete