Lessons taken to heart

[much_ado]

It's still a record, of some kind, from this to now: a whopping FOUR DAYS from finally stopping being so goddamned busy all the time, to trying to throw myself into the deep end of something that would have had a fairly intensive time and effort investment for the next several months of my life, provided me lots of distraction and "instant

Comments

[horsetraveller]

What I thought of when I read that passage: when an airplane is stalled (or spinning), unless it's a super performance kind of plane like the kind I would not be driving, a better reaction to pulling on the stick and *trying* to *control* it out of its uncontrolled fall, is to let go of everything and let the airplane find its own balance. The nose will go down, it will unstall, the wings will create lift and it will fly again, and then it will respond to normal controls.

Allowing yourself to let go is a very very hard thing to do.

I am looking forward to having tea with you.

[much_ado]

Ironically (or, perhaps, not) the other anecdotal story she uses in the chapter, other than a client story, is the story of Chuck Yaeger and the initial high-altitude test flights in the 50s in which they discovered exactly that principle.

[dicea]

Heh. Letting go of the controls.

Tonight I had way too much freight and people kept bringing me more and giving me the opportunity to want to start processing the new stuff before I'd finished processing and organizing the old stuff. There is no point in trying to rush or get ahead at this point, there is only accepting that it's going to be long and hard and frustrating and just working through it.

When it got to be too much for a moment I just stopped and crossed my arms on the steering wheel of the tow motor and put my forehead down on my wrists. I thought, "Fuck-it, Jesus take the wheel." and then I immediately stomped the parking brake down. You know, just in case.

Letting go of control doesn't always mean putting something or someone else in charge. I think sometimes that pause and a little stubbornness in that pause is the right set up to take stock of where we are right now. Maybe a little more "Jesus, put the kettle on rather than take the wheel."

[lunasmiles]

Very good! I was also going to mention that you make sure which control you're letting go of, such as a moving vehicle. That would be a bit counterproductive. ;~)