Don't we all have days when there just isn't the 110% that the world demands of us? You have to honestly admit that there are some days when you turn in 68%, and that seems pretty good, all things considered. By the law of averages, you cannot turn out 110% every day. There might be some laws you can get around (E.G. the speed limit, jaywalking, and some of the tax laws, if you are wealthy) but everyone must have an "off" day, and no one can beat the law of averages, no matter how much money they have. Even Bill Gates can't buy his way out of an "off" day, a day when they turn in a less than stellar performance.
I happens to us all.
There is no reason to be ashamed. Everyone has an "off" day. This is the reason that I believe in the pass system.
The pass system was introduced to me by my dear friend Roy Bentley. Until then, I had considered that people said, and did, things from an ongoing conscious mind that was always operating at full, peak efficiency, and was merely operating merely on their own set of rules and guidelines. For some weird reason, it had never occurred to me that I had caught them on "a bad day".
Dear friends have said things that I found hurtful. Bosses have given orders that were self- defeating. Children have told me how much they hate me.
All of these folks were having an "off" day.
Not everyone can bring their "A" game every day, and for those I care about, they get a pass.
I would like to say that anyone who has read this far, you get a pass.
But I might need one.
You know.
Just here and there.
Doc
one of the most profound bits of whiz-dum I've heard came from a veternarian. My and Flann's two kittens, Henry and Trout, were found to be sleeping in their litterbox most of an afternoon.
ReplyDeleteThis didn't seem like behaviour that a self-respecting cat would do, so I took 'em to the vet who gave 'em a good going over (cat scan?) and prounounced that they were probably not feeling good and suffering from malaise and ennui.
"Let them have their bad days," he said, and it's worthy advice. We expect people to be too goddamned cheerful and peppy these days (maybe that's why we have such rage problems and pay people lots of money to rant and roar on the radio-- it's a form of rebellion).
Doc, you've given me more bad days than I can count thanks to dysthymia, so when U need one, I've got a whole desk drawer full of 'em. In fact, I'm takin' this black Sharpie marker and writing D-O-C on the front of the drawer...
I love the "pass system". It's so humane.
ReplyDeleteIt makes a lot of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteGreat post!
I once saw a damn good play (Harold Pinter's _Betrayal_) starring three damn good actors (Juliet Binoche, Liev Schrieber, and John Slattery), and yet, it was a little...off. It was a Tuesday, they were coming back from their day off, I gave them a pass. Perhaps strangely, perhaps because I just love at least 2 or the 3 of them, and the play, I didn't feel like anyone in the piece was bad or miscast, and I knew the play was good because I'd seen it before; I just got the sense that they were a strong cast in a good play having an off day. I still really enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good system, which I try to employ (though sometimes I forget; I need a pass, too). Thanks for spreading the good word, Doc.
Doc,
ReplyDeleteHow many passes do I get? I may need a couple.
Big Orange,
I totally have that! Thaks to you and Wikipedia, I no longer have to see a $$doctor$$. Now I just have to find a way to self-medicate.
Beer perhaps?
-EG