About a week ago, a co-worker of mine and I were closing up the office. She asked me to close the blinds, and I sensed trouble. I had never been able to master the art of opening and closing the blinds. I tried, but sure enough, as in the past, I couldn't get them to drop.
When I told my co-worker, she laughed. Then she showed me the trick. Not all that much of a trick, but then again, I have never been very good with even the simplest mechanical sort of stuff. Anyway, it worked I can do it now.
I don't know why nobody ever showed me the trick before. I'm sure I tried to manipulate blinds in front of my mother at some point, and I would have thought that if she had known what I was doing wrong, as I must have, she would have pointed it out to me.
Anyway, this is an example of something that I could never do, that it seemed everyone else on Earth could do, that I eventually learned to do. This is pretty much an exception to what I am going to focus on here, which entails things that I never could do, that it seems everyone else on Earth can do, and I still can't do.
I guess everyone has these obstacles, and they also have things they can do easily that many others have a difficult time with. It's the same with me, but I tend to get frustrated with my shortcomings anyway. There are at least a couple that I would prefer not to reveal right now, but cleaning is one of them. When I try to clean--say a sink-- I usually only succeed at moving the dirt from one place to another. Or so it seems. If I spend enough time on it and put in enough energy, the job will be done.
Reminds me of shop in 7th grade. I have never been good at that type of thing, in general. It didn't help that I had the world's worst teacher (not just the world's worst shop teacher, but the world's worst teacher), but even so, I just felt at so much of a disadvantage when it came to working with tools-- or trying to work with tools, would be a more accurate way of putting it, in my case.
There was one instance that I sometimes think of as a metaphor for other situations I have encountered. We were sawing wood. Others would just saw the plank right through, but when it came my turn, it took forever to cut the wood. So someone would take over for a few seconds to show me how it was done, and in a few seconds, deepened the cut quite a bit. Then of course I would take the controls again, and once again, I would get nowhere.
There are things that I can do. Supposedly I can write sports stories. I basically walked off the street and into the sports room with no formal training at age 35, and I have been writing ever since. I'm not saying I'm the best writer who ever lived, but some people can't do it at all.
I could list some more, but I don't want to do that for fear it may sound egotistical. Besides, the focus here is on things that I have trouble with that many others don't seem to. And when those things do arise, it's like that saw and that wood all over again.
Now, with the saw and wood, the problem is solved by avoidance. I don't even know if I've held a saw since 7th grade; if I have a job to be done that involves sawing wood, I pay someone to do it. Let them benefit from their skills while freeing up more time for me to do things that I am capable of.
But unfortunately, not everything can be handled in that manner. There are some things that have to be handled yourself, that you can't pay others to do. That's when it gets rough.
I kind of feel I should conclude this with some piece of wisdom. So if you have one, please let me know. :) I'm not really sure what else there is to say. It can just be frustrating, that's all...
