Dolly. Dear Dolly. You are now five days past your due date and all you do is stand there with no signs that you have any intention of giving birth. You're HUGE and must be uncomfortable, so why don't you just do this? We'll both be much happier and I can get on with life without checking on you every hour and sleeping with an ear cocked to the window to hear if you're bellowing.
Please??
_________________
The above was Saturday morning and it's now Sunday morning. I'm at Dizzy's Donuts for a cup of coffee and a cinnamon roll before heading to church for my 8:30 class.
Dolly is still a lady-in-waiting with no discernable progress.
I've done chores, had b'fast, baked a batch of cookies, and taken care of some email.
Let's keep it rolling!
Note: the extra "cheat" is because I lost half a pound last week. (I weigh every Sunday morning.) I attribute that to increased mileage as I train for summer and fall runs. So far it's going well. Last Monday's run was a total FAIL and I struggled through the whole thing. Yesterday I bumped up the distance 1/2 mile and felt good. No reason I can think of for the disparity. It just happens that way.
Which led me to a line of thought that may or may not be valid. To wit...
All athletes have good days and bad days. Ballplayers talk about being "in the zone," a time when they see a huge orb (baseball players at the plate), or the basket looks like a bathtub, or the net seems to be 12" tall. Other days nothing feels in sync, the body won't respond, and it's all bricks and quicksand.
But that's true for many professions. Preachers have mornings when their thoughts flow easily, they find the ideal word to express that thought, and it all comes easily and naturally. Other mornings even they are bored with their efforts.
Actors, musicians, cabinet makers...days when it all comes together easily and productively and days when nothing seems to work quite right.
Thesis: the more elite the professional the fewer those high days and low days are - a greater span in between the outliers. And the smaller the difference between the highs and the lows. less deviation. If you're a 68-year old pavement pounder every day is a crap shoot and it can show up as a PR or an "I gotta walk this stretch."
You know who doesn't have those swings? They guy who stands at a big machine and pokes a green button all day. Or loads and unloads metal into a giant press that turns them into fenders for Toyota Camrys. The guy working in the produce dept. at the local grocery store who restocks bananas and lettuce for an 8-hour shift (ask me how I know).
Maybe that risk of a bad day and the reward of the rare "zone" day is what makes some professions and jobs much more satisfying. The chance of a FAIL or a Boom! is a draw.
For some (most?) people. Not everyone. Some people are more than happy to do a mindless task over and over again at no risk and for very little chance for a performance sweet spot because they value steady predictability. And that's probably a very good thing for Toyota and the people who drive Camrys.
In an hour I'll drive on to church where I'll teach an intro to the Gospel of John.
FAIL or Boom??
Yes, I enjoy the risk/reward of the uncertainty.
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