I have great admiration for people who fix things. Whether
mechanical or electronic, I watch folks dive in with confidence and tinker with
this or adjust that, try stuff out and emerge victorious. But I’m not one of
them.
One of the gifts of studying about multiple intelligences is
recognizing that none of us are equally adept in all of them and can therefore
forgive ourselves if we can’t stop the toilet from running, but can do a decent
job playing Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” I long ago gave up on my mechanical aptitude and felt perfectly
happy to pay car mechanics, plumbers, electricians and to ask for help from
computer folks.
But such forgiveness for one’s shortcomings can also be a kind
of laziness and giving up too soon on your potential ability to figure things
out. I put out my helpless-self-call to the world in the last blog to fix my
Facebook problem and blog font problem, and lo and behold, stumbled into
solutions for both of them! All by my itty-bitty-self! Neither required
sophisticated skills and prior knowledge, but they did demand some imaginative
analysis, attentive focus and trial-and-error attempted solutions. And both
worked!
So I count that step up to Mr. Tinker amongst the day’s
satisfactions, right next to the effortless skill as Mr. Tailor stitching
together disparate cloths to create a coherent tapestry filled with color and
warmth. I have great workshop activities cultivated from over four decades of
work, reasonably good musicianship to make them come alive, good enough social
skills to create an atmosphere of fun comraderie. But perhaps the best tool in
my toolbox (or needle and thread in my sewing kit) is my interest in and
ability to reflect on what’s going on and sew together material with pedagogy
with philosophy with the details of human development.
I am happy to bypass Soldier, Sailor, Rich Man, Poor Man,
Beggarman, Thief, which lands me a score of one out of eight for the nursery
rhyme’s view of career choices. But as long as I can announce this in the right
font and post it on Facebook, I’m happy.
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