One of the big disappointments in my life is that I am not an expert in anything. If you car is making a funny noise and you ask me if I know what that sound is, all I can do is hum a few bars. If your vacuum isn’t working well I might suggest emptying the bin. Lawn mower won’t move? I can point out that it is a push mower. After that I might suggest a pair of scissors. If they want to know where the book of Amos is I am glad to direct them to the table of contents.
I can show people how to write a complete sentence but no one cares about such things any more. I can preach them a sermon but I can’t make them turn their hearing aids on.
When I was teaching it wasn’t such a challenge. Teachers don’t get out much. When they would come to me and say their computer didn’t work I would suggest checking to see if it was plugged in. Usually that solved the problem. They thought I was a techo-wizard. If they could not get their key to work in the door all I needed to point out was that there was another key on their ring. I could feel like the one eyed man in the land of the blind. One of the sayings I used to post in my room to keep me humble was, “Being the deepest puddle on the sidewalk is nothing to brag about.”
homo unius libri
Sunday, February 8, 2026
Opus 2026-083: Living up to Mediocre
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments are welcome. Feel free to agree or disagree but keep it clean, courteous and short. I heard some shorthand on a podcast: TLDR, Too long, didn't read.