A Little Bit Of Duct Tape And It’s All Good…

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200 words, Baseboard, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, duct tape, flaws, generalist, good enough, impatient, perfection, quick fix

“I couldn’t repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.” – Steven Wright

I can relate to the above quote.

I hate to admit it.

But it’s true.

I’m a generalist. And unless I’m totally enthralled with something, I learn just enough to be dangerous.

Like when I learned (and ‘learned’ is a very generous term here) to play the guitar. I learned 16 chords. I practiced till my fingers bled – yes. But when someone tried to teach me to pick individual notes on individual strings, I quickly dismissed the endeavor.

It was good enough for me to happily strum a few tunes.

I’m not a perfectionist and if something doesn’t work perfectly the first time, I make do, at least for a time.

To do otherwise would make me crazy.

Would make me obsess, get angry, be unreasonable.

So when my tap has dripped I’ve collected the water in a container. When the vacuum hose had a tear I’ve taped it up. When the chain on the toilet thingamajig broke, I’ve used twist ties.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Shhhh don’t tell anyone, but some of my baseboards are held in place with duct tape…

…and I’m OK with that.

You Know What’s Boring?

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200 words, Act, afraid, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Fear, growth, learning, mistakes, perfection, striving, struggles

“Show us a man who never makes a mistake and we will show you a man who never makes anything.” ~ H. L. Wayland

“I love you mom.”

“You know what’s boring?”  I asked not hearing what my daughter said.

“When someone loves you back?”  she replied sarcastically.

“What?!”

“I just said I love you! And YOU asked about what’s boring.”

We burst out laughing. Both my daughter and I are slightly ADD, it’s not unusual for either one of us to get lost in our thoughts and not hear what the other said.

“So…what’s boring mom?”

“Perfection,”  I replied, still laughing, wiping the tears away.

~

Imagine a world where everything is perfect, a world without flaws, no touch-ups needed, no mistakes, no learning, no room to grow, no reason to strive for anything, no appreciation and bewildered joy when something beautiful happens.

And yet we are obsessed with doing everything right the first time. So we work toward perfection, afraid to implement until every i is dotted and every t is crossed before we act, often not acting at all. And then we teach our children to do the same.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~