Direction-Challenged

 

 

If you happened to be walking past my house yesterday and heard screaming, that was me trying to fill out the Hong Kong working visa form for my March workshops coming up. I HATE filling out things like this, especially on-line where the unforgiving Old Testament God of Computers has no tolerance for a single character out of place. And if you need help, why, just go through another ten hoops for online assistance. 

I wrote to my sponsors in Hong Kong pleading for mercy and miraculously, one of them found the single error (one number!) that halted all forward motion. As I got past the guard at the gate and tiptoed to the ending, I arrived at the signature click and that’s when it said, “Sorry. Our system is experiencing problems. Try again later.”

 

I was never the kid who could put together the model airplanes and likewise was bad in Biology Lab. Something about me resisted following the unforgiving step-by-step directions. Likewise, those multiple-choice tests where the test-makers thought they were cleverly setting up one correct answer only, but I could see other answers were possible and I could explain why. No surprise that it led me to a life in Orff Schulwerk and Jazz, where multiple answers were not only possible, but often desirable. When you figure out variations of the melodies and chords and a hundred different ways to teach the same lesson, the understanding is deeper and the result more interesting. 

 

It is maddening that I have to fill out those one-way-only forms to get to teach my many-ways-are-possible lessons. I reluctantly accept that these are simply the coins I have to pay to Caesar before arriving at God’s house. But some day, as it seems to be moving in the direction of more and more unnecessary and maddening hoops on uncaring screens, I may just decide to stay home. 

 

Meanwhile, I did finally sign the form. Perhaps I’ll go to Hong Kong after all.