Once, when I was about 17 yrs old, I took a class about building computers. I was poor, so I couldn’t afford to buy my own. Instead I worked on my classmate’s decks, moving from system to system spoiling over memory sticks and hard drives, hoping that I’d placed jumpers in the right order. The hardware side of the class was easy for me. I have never had too much trouble with wiring. The software side was more painful. I found that the Operating System was really what determined how the computer worked, and thus how I perceived each finished deck. The thing about operating systems is that they are always receiving updates. My problem was that I’d look at a deck, decide whether or not it was a good one and move on. Later, the OS would be refreshed and the computer I’d said was a low quality clunker would hum to life with all the speed and power of a Porsche.
People are like that.
It is my experience that others tend to write you off based on the last bad thing you did. You go through a few months of a rough spell or a slow start and suddenly you’re the person who can’t get it going or the one who will never recover or is constantly overwhelmed. They don’t stick around to see your OS refresh. Instead they look at you with the false pity of someone who thinks they have their own shit together. They sigh and tiptoe and give you the reassuring glance, all the while thinking that you are less than–a clunker that never quite got that OS installed right. Instead the reality is a person who is going above and beyond and doing things that make life all the more impressive to live.
Such parables remind me that people aren’t static. We are all fluid beings capable of doing wonderful things. Some of us are extraordinary and capable of doing so much more. Of course, doing more means more expectation and more that is taken for granted or lost on an uncaring audience. So, sometimes it becomes the wisest route to do nothing at all.