So, I was standing in line at the gate at the airport in Phoenix, waiting to show my boarding pass, when one of the airline employees at the counter looked down at the boots on my feet and with a tone of mixed surprise, disgust and judgement said, “Wow! Did you wear the wrong shoes to travel in. Having to deal with those laces is such a pain!”
I shrugged, and the first thing that came to mind mind to say was that “I had mastered tying my shoes in kindergarten and haven’t looked back since. It’s not really that big of a deal to me anymore.” Realizing, of course that she would probably think I was just being a smart-ass, I caught myself and simply said, “I just came from a colder climate and these just made more sense for the weather there.” She shrugged, appearing to be disappointed I didn’t jump onto her anti-boot bandwagon, mumbled something incoherent, and looked away.
Now, I get what she was trying to say, that having to untie the laces on boots can take more time in the security line than slipping off a pair of loafers, but I think there is a bigger issue here. Since when have we been the kind of people that get frustrated with boot laces, rather than “pulling ourselves up by them”? Do we really need to go through life, frustrated by a pair of laces, rather than just adapting and moving on to bigger problems? Think about how much better off we would be as individuals, a community, a country and a world if we saved our energy and effort for things that really were difficult.
In some ways, that is part of who we are here at The Transmogrifier. That is why we chose the name for the company we did. The process of transmogrifying something is about transforming something into something else, which requires work. The creative process IS effort and most things that are truly rewarding take effort and THAT is what makes them rewarding. Climbing that mountain. Curing that disease. Solving that complex problem. Creating that work of art that moves people on an emotional level… Those are just a few of the things that should take up our time and effort…
…NOT tying our shoes…
Love the perspective on this; makes me stop and think about what little things are distracting me from the big things at work. And makes me want to be sure to focus on the more important things in my life, and not let the irritating mosquitos or the shiny objects be the focus. Or in the case of an airport, giving into the pushiness of people in the security line and moving into a frantic rush to unlace the shoes.