Once upon a time (circus symphony).
I used to be pretty fast.
I’m not so fast anymore.
I used to be fairly efficient at some things.
I’m not really efficient at any thing anymore.
I used to have a handful of areas in which I was skilled or knowledgeable at a somewhat deep level.
I’m more of a general purpose do-most-things-at-a-functional level now.
I didn’t used to have children.
Now I have four.
I don’t know if there’s any connection among those four things.
Yes, I do know
Of course there is.
I’m not really fast at running, or doing any sort of task or project anymore. I can’t say my skills have grown incredibly sharper in the professional and creative areas I have worked in.
And I’m not really efficient at getting anything done.
I did lie about one thing
One of those things is false.
I actually am pretty fast. Not fast in the running sense, or movement sense, or highly-skilled sense.
But fast in getting a lot accomplished quickly at the level it needs to be done at. The idea is that if I’m fast in enough areas, I can slow down in a few others to actually give some deep focus and attention.
Deep work
Ah, the idea of deep focus and deep work and intense concentration on single tasks. Amazing. A dream, a day dream.
But some things are zero sum.
You do one, you don’t do the other.
Circus Symphony
We do not lead an efficient life in many ways.
But we have built an effective one. Effective in the sense that amidst the circus symphony we inhabit, we have constructed time and space for imagination, intellect, energy, conversation, creativity, and relationships to develop.
And those things don’t develop in a vacuum or in a highly-ordered manner.
They develop, at least in our case, into a circus symphony.
Ten
We find mountains to climb and rivers to cross (or at least creeks). There are always, always tasks and projects calling my name; sometimes they’re things I need to do, and sometimes they’re things I want to do.
There is an efficient way to get those things done, and I want to have the humility and wisdom to continue finding better ways to do things.
But oftentimes, the Efficiency Factor is the first sacrifice I will make. If I can unload a dishwasher in five minutes with no help, or unload it in twenty minutes with help (in the form of a young child, or children)…I will choose the latter.
Because this circus symphony of life is a game, and we’re playing the long version.
We’ll try to be fast, we’ll try to have fun, and we’ll try to get what’s gotta get done done. We will stumble on all those variables, repeatedly.
Eleven
We get stuff done. Most of the stuff we have to. We dream, and make plans, and write lists of things we’d like to do, and have to do, and talk about the future and remember the past, and try, try,
try to enjoy the present and make as many sticky memories as possible.
Because you never know what’s gonna stick in someone else’s memory.
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