Might Not Be a Mighty Miter - Erich

I once had a job in which the boss was an overbearing micro-manager, you know the kind. One couldn't make a decision without having to justify it twelve times. We couldn't leave the building during work hours if it wasn't on the all-knowing Google Calendar. I often wondered when a new policy would appear declaring employees must clock out for trips to the bathroom.

It won't be a surprise to learn that the turnover rate at that place was high. I didn't even make it a full year in that job before I had to leave for my own sanity. But one day before I left that position, my boss was complaining to a coworker and me about how difficult we were to communicate with, nay, how difficult it was to communicate with all of us who worked there. After the boss moved on, my coworker, obviously a natural born philosopher, said, "If it's a problem for you to get along with everyone, maybe the problem is you."

Today, I was working on a small home repair, in the quest to get everything into top notch shape for sale of the house. And part of this repair involved the use of the miter saw and the miter box. Clearly the saw is not sharp enough, the box is badly designed, and the wood is uncooperative. Or maybe, when everything else is the problem, the problem is actually me.

Using the miter box is not one of my most highly rated skills. In fact, I'm not all that good at it. And that same statement holds for a variety of tool related activities. I am not a handy man. I'm not particularly handy. I have hands, but apparently not the handiest hands.

So this was bothering me, because I found myself unable to complete the task at hand. (Those not handy hands keep coming up!) But before I dove into the depths of the self-deprecation whirlpool, I realized, I do have a few other skills. I'm pretty handy with calculus and Newtonian physics. I can write a site-specific play with the best of them. And I am a world-class pointer out of ridiculous things that could and should be better. So that's something, right?

In this trip we are taking, we are going to be hitting our limits, testing those limits, and hopefully extending the limits. So I better get used to it.

And if you don't agree, well, maybe the problem is you.