Shortcuts and the scenic route
Shortcuts can sometimes yield pleasant surprises. Once, I was on my way to a singing lesson in Oxshott, Surrey and I took a shortcut through some woodland area to reach my destination. Out of the blue I was surprised to see a group of Japanese children, giggling and riding unicycles! This was in the middle of nowhere.
If I had taken the main road on that occasion, I wouldn’t have come across that almost surreal sight. It wasn’t of any immediate use to me, but at a later date, I had a conversation with a Japanese educationist about what I saw that afternoon and he explained to me that some children in his country were encouraged to learn to ride unicycles, because it helps to develop balance between left and right brain activity.
I like to approach things in a thorough way, whenever possible. Details can make a huge difference to the overall effect of producing objects and presenting ideas. In recent times, I have had conversations with colleagues who feel despair about dealing with folks who don’t have the capacity to understand why they need to invest in steady growth in developing going concerns.
There was a time when I was caught up in that recurring cycle. I gave a considerable number of years to the process of pedalling back and forth, doing the same things within a group of people whose values were not going to change through any sort of cajoling or negotiation.
Eventually, I learnt that I was only supposed to travel with those people for a finite period. Now that I have moved on, I am appreciative of the lessons I absorbed in that time. I am also conscious of the fact that there is a whole big world out there and there are always new things to discover.
