Something
very strange happened last week. It wasn’t UFO strange, meteor falling through
the sky strange, animal with two heads strange….but nonetheless it was strange
and of course….I took the opportunity to stretch it into a metaphor for life.
Grab your
coffee, recline your chair and sit back….this is a long one.
I was
driving down the highway, my husband in the passenger seat, the speed limit
marked as 100km per hour. My 2003 Chevy Impala loves to go fast and after all
these years, we know each other so very well. I set the cruise control at 100km
per hour and head for home. It was dark out, there wasn’t a lot of traffic on
the highway and I was scanning the ditches for animals (deer seem to love to
jump out at the last moment).
About 5
minutes into the trip…..
Glancing
down at my gauges, I notice that my speed has decreased to 80 (which was
strange when you are cruise control) and so I responded by depressing the gas
pedal a little further, using a little more force.
Picture
the following thought bubble here: That’s strange……I feel like I am going faster, but my
speedometer is now reading 60km per hour.
What the
hell is happening? Am I suffering some kind of stroke? Have I been thrust into
an alternate time and space? Did my friends put something in my coffee?
My
sensory system is telling me that I am traveling 100km per hour (or more at
this point), but my eyes are seeing 60km on the speedometer and transmitting
that information to my brain.
We are
clearly experiencing a malfunction at the junction…but which junction? My mind
is racing with the possibilities, not least of all that I am losing my mind. Am
I about to be sucked into a black hole?
The
speedometer is dropping further now and I depress the gas pedal in response.
The gauges do not respond. We are now whizzing down the highway, the tree-line
zooming past and my brain once again tries to rationalize the situation.
I FEEL
like I am going faster and faster, but my speedometer is saying that I am going
slower and slower.
Glancing
over at my husband, I am looking for any sign that something is really and
truly wrong with me.
“How fast
do you think we are going?” I say in a panicked voice.
“Pretty
fast!” he responds (checking his seatbelt)
“My
speedometer is saying that I am only going 40km per hour!!! What is going on?”
I say…in a very concerned tone.
“I think
it must be broken because you are obviously going very, very, verrrrry
fast and you should perhaps SLOW down!” he exclaims, bringing his seatback into
the upright position.
Can this
be true? Can your speedometer just die like that?
I take my
foot off the gas pedal and the car begins to slow. Coincidentally, the
speedometer now begins a steady freefall, bouncing along until it finally rests
at zero.
The
speedometer has clearly crapped out on my 2003 Impala.
A part of
me is still questioning. It is like when someone tells you it is raining and it
clearly is not raining. A part of you wants to believe that it actually is
raining…to trust in what the person says…..why would they lie? We have been
programmed to trust.
We have
been programmed to trust that darn speedometer.
My first
instinct was to question myself. My first instinct was to trust a machine over
my own sense of reality.
What does
that say about me?
This
isn’t the first time that my trust has been misplaced…misguided.
Is it my
upbringing? The generation I belong to?
Thank
goodness I wasn’t flying an aircraft or performing surgery.
Over the
past couple of days I have come to the following conclusion:
·
When
all else fails (and sometimes it does), you have to rely on yourself, your
instincts.
·
Learn
that it is okay to question.
·
NOTHING
is infallible…..everything and everyone can make a mistake.
·
Trust
in yourself
Judy
6 comments:
I can't think of any better advice. Leave it to a Chevy Impala (my high school car) to teach us a lesson!
Thanks Nancy! Trusting in ourselves can be difficult. So many factors come into play: self confidence and inner strength. I believe that it can be the difference between someone who leads and someone who follows. Questioning and challenging the status quo also comes from trust.
As for the car.... is almost time to retire the ol' impala and I have been resisting it because I love it! It goes sooooo fast!
Judy
You love it because it goes soooo fast...except that then it tells you it isn't really! And then you have to decide whether to believe your trusty advisor or your own lyin' eyes.
Judy, if you'll permit me to stretch the metaphor a bit farther, I can't think of a better way to describe our industry's rush to declare itself fully sustainable, the whole job done and the battle won, so that we can mightily check the check-box and move on. Our eyes tell us that we've barely scratched the surface on the big issues like carbon, energy, water, and waste. We know that even some of the smaller stuff, like hotel linen programs, rarely works as advertised. But then, but then, but then...the latest press release says that facility, destination, or meeting really is sustainable, and we were sure the speedometer was working the last time we checked. At least, they told us it was.
At that point, the two crucial issues are what to believe and how to broach the question. You may not have to toss the car, but at very least, the two of you have to get some agreement on the metrics you want to use.
Mitchell, I love the metaphor! and you are so very right.
Questioning is critical and we need to always be asking, challenging.
Judy
well judy this is a big issue for me, the dismantling of individual judgement is not an accident in my opinion, it's part of what i call "classroom conditioning." the default in most education systems is for us to systematically trained to look to outside superior authority, i suppose like dorothy in the wizard of oz. recognizing that the reflex habit of not trusting one's own perceptions is not a shameful individual failing, but is in fact an intended result of traditional large scale education, is perhaps part of instituting the fix. just my opinion. best, jl
Thanks for the comment Justin and I apologize for the slow response.
You make very good points and perhaps we have been trained that way through our education system and society.
I was really frustrated at my personal response (trust reflex) when the speedometer failed and i have been thinking about it since.
It is a topic that merits further conversation.
Judy
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