Be A Palm Tree In 2008
Patrick Butler
Welcome to 2008, all you type-A addicts. Ready, steady, go, and hit the ground running and off with the gun and all that.
On the morning of Jan. 3, after there was no more thought of "holiday" I was thinking furiously, looking about the house wondering what might sink my workday this time. I began to once again feel like one of the Roman galley slaves in Ben-Hur. That's a movie, just FYI for anyone under 40, that had no digital effects, guitar hero-like soundtrack, THX Dolby or hopeless, nihilistic ending.
In that film, the slave-driver-guy-with-a-whip goes to the hapless oarsmen of the galley and says menacingly, "Row well and live."
That thought was on my mind as I dove into the car, wife handing off coffee cup and lunch.
Before readers start sending me time-management systems, advice on priority planning and "taking time for myself," let me just say, "Been there and done that." I have a closet full of time-organization systems that I've happily invested in and that didn't fit the scenarios I seem to regularly face despite leather-covered, sharp-looking folders that promise organization.
What I need is the "contingency theory" system of time-management. That would be a blank notebook that comes with a pen and a note on top that says "Whatever happens next, do it." I can plan all I want, I've found, and there will almost always be something taking the whole sweet plan and trashing it, sometimes before it even gets off the ground.
I'm tempted to have a calendar that just says "Employ Plan B today" over each day. I'm forced to "roll with it" that is, adjust to whatever's going on, seemingly on a weekly basis. "Blessed are the flexible," the saying goes, "for they shall not break."
"Be a palm tree that bends with the breeze," a pastor once told me, "Not a mighty oak that stands up to the winds, but gets knocked down."
So I stared at the kitchen floor Jan. 3, car keys in hand, ready to take on 2008.
"What are you doing?" finally asked my wife, Janet.
"Being a palm tree," I said, as she shook her head in wonder.
Years before I wound up as the religion editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, I was a writer and producer of a video-production company that specialized in nonprofit organizations. I quickly learned there are 50 ways a location shooting could be sabotaged. If you took care of 49 of those details beforehand, number 50 was almost sure to get you. There you and your film crew would be in some third-world country lacking a $1 part that could be had at an American Radio Shack, but now was 1,000 miles away. That's frustration difficult to match.
Be a palm tree, I remember.
One time, there was a shoot planned for New Guinea to cover the medical-relief efforts going on there. A crew was assembled, plane tickets purchased, contacts in three countries alerted and watches synchronized. People were riding their immediate futures on this project.
I'll never forget the phone call from the New Zealand contact. "Patrick," he said in that sing-song, understated commonwealth kind of voice, "We're having a bit of a revolution out in New Guinea and I'm afraid we're not going to be able to film there just yet. And we don't know when it's going to be safe to go back. Sorry."
Be a palm tree.
The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared," so now I am. I'm prepared for whatever can go wrong most likely will. Newly purchased products won't work, critical appointments won't be kept, documents will be stolen, people will change their minds, and so on.
Be a palm tree.
There is a religious element that says prayer will control these things and God will establish your ways, make your paths straight, mountains low and valleys high. To keep that up takes a lot of praying.
I'm more of the group that is forced to go with the flow because they can't control what's going on despite their best efforts. Lord knows I ask, and plan for, circumstances to be predictable, pleasurable and peaceful. But what's happened instead is an unexpected answer to my request.
I've been forced to become peaceful in myself, not matter what's going on, no matter whose depending on me, no matter what people want and even if the result may, fearfully, destroy my reputation. I do my best, pray that it's blessed and God takes care of the rest.
Being a palm tree might seem unglamorous and even fatalistic to some who expect, nay, demand, that control is exerted over all things. The consequences of fatalism are severe and to be avoided. But take another look. There will always be something that gets by, can't be planned for, expected or anticipated that defies control. When that happens, isn't it best, so life isn't a continual panic, to be a palm tree?
On the morning of Jan. 3, after there was no more thought of "holiday" I was thinking furiously, looking about the house wondering what might sink my workday this time. I began to once again feel like one of the Roman galley slaves in Ben-Hur. That's a movie, just FYI for anyone under 40, that had no digital effects, guitar hero-like soundtrack, THX Dolby or hopeless, nihilistic ending.
In that film, the slave-driver-guy-with-a-whip goes to the hapless oarsmen of the galley and says menacingly, "Row well and live."
That thought was on my mind as I dove into the car, wife handing off coffee cup and lunch.
Before readers start sending me time-management systems, advice on priority planning and "taking time for myself," let me just say, "Been there and done that." I have a closet full of time-organization systems that I've happily invested in and that didn't fit the scenarios I seem to regularly face despite leather-covered, sharp-looking folders that promise organization.
What I need is the "contingency theory" system of time-management. That would be a blank notebook that comes with a pen and a note on top that says "Whatever happens next, do it." I can plan all I want, I've found, and there will almost always be something taking the whole sweet plan and trashing it, sometimes before it even gets off the ground.
I'm tempted to have a calendar that just says "Employ Plan B today" over each day. I'm forced to "roll with it" that is, adjust to whatever's going on, seemingly on a weekly basis. "Blessed are the flexible," the saying goes, "for they shall not break."
"Be a palm tree that bends with the breeze," a pastor once told me, "Not a mighty oak that stands up to the winds, but gets knocked down."
So I stared at the kitchen floor Jan. 3, car keys in hand, ready to take on 2008.
"What are you doing?" finally asked my wife, Janet.
"Being a palm tree," I said, as she shook her head in wonder.
Years before I wound up as the religion editor of the Tyler Morning Telegraph, I was a writer and producer of a video-production company that specialized in nonprofit organizations. I quickly learned there are 50 ways a location shooting could be sabotaged. If you took care of 49 of those details beforehand, number 50 was almost sure to get you. There you and your film crew would be in some third-world country lacking a $1 part that could be had at an American Radio Shack, but now was 1,000 miles away. That's frustration difficult to match.
Be a palm tree, I remember.
One time, there was a shoot planned for New Guinea to cover the medical-relief efforts going on there. A crew was assembled, plane tickets purchased, contacts in three countries alerted and watches synchronized. People were riding their immediate futures on this project.
I'll never forget the phone call from the New Zealand contact. "Patrick," he said in that sing-song, understated commonwealth kind of voice, "We're having a bit of a revolution out in New Guinea and I'm afraid we're not going to be able to film there just yet. And we don't know when it's going to be safe to go back. Sorry."
Be a palm tree.
The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared," so now I am. I'm prepared for whatever can go wrong most likely will. Newly purchased products won't work, critical appointments won't be kept, documents will be stolen, people will change their minds, and so on.
Be a palm tree.
There is a religious element that says prayer will control these things and God will establish your ways, make your paths straight, mountains low and valleys high. To keep that up takes a lot of praying.
I'm more of the group that is forced to go with the flow because they can't control what's going on despite their best efforts. Lord knows I ask, and plan for, circumstances to be predictable, pleasurable and peaceful. But what's happened instead is an unexpected answer to my request.
I've been forced to become peaceful in myself, not matter what's going on, no matter whose depending on me, no matter what people want and even if the result may, fearfully, destroy my reputation. I do my best, pray that it's blessed and God takes care of the rest.
Being a palm tree might seem unglamorous and even fatalistic to some who expect, nay, demand, that control is exerted over all things. The consequences of fatalism are severe and to be avoided. But take another look. There will always be something that gets by, can't be planned for, expected or anticipated that defies control. When that happens, isn't it best, so life isn't a continual panic, to be a palm tree?
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