It only... takes a moment...
Jul. 14th, 2008 06:04 pmSo I mentioned that seeing the finale of this series of Dr. Who (Or rather, this season's conclusion) bothered me. I mentioned part of why; finally giving a character an understanding of her own importance and brilliance and then stripping it away from her so that she could live out her life never knowing how wonderful she really could be.
I also mentioned the aspect of human nature that makes it hard for us to remember to thank someone who helps us in our time of crisis.
And I wanted to talk about another idea that was used recently on Dr. Who... and while I was formulating my thoughts on the matter,
bradhicks explained the missing variable to the equation which mathmatically assured him that he wouldn't live past age 35.
Either inspired by THAT post, or on his own initiative,
felax appeared out of the woodwork to share a story of amazing luck from his own past.
At this point, I had better jot this down before it slips away from me again.
I won't bore you with the whole explanation of the Dr. Who episode, I'll only say that they used, as a plot point, the idea that if you change one decision from your past, you can change everything about your life. Perhaps not *any* decision, but sometimes decisions that seem small (such as turning left instead of right) can turn out to have a lot more weight placed upon them than you might think. I've played with the notion of "what would happen if I hadn't made the same choice at a given point in my history?" Some of you might recall that I did so in this journal for a writing exercise when I played "Down the rabbithole" on Lewis Carroll's birthday a few years ago.
Small moments wind up defining the large moments in our lives. Sure, you can make a case for a different life if you chose a different mate, college, major, career, or city to live in. That's easy.
But what about the one tiny decision that brought you to where you are? For example, I would not know my S.O. if I hadn't injured myself working retail when I was about 19 years old.
Yep. I was working on a spectacular repetitive stress injury to my wrist. I was having some spectacular shooting pain in the wrist, arm, and hand. I would say that on any given day I'd see five people wearing wrist braces at that store, and two or more of them were in my department. Something about the way I had to handle the merchandise (on hangers, or having to use keys to get at the merchandise, or maybe the repetition of replenishing stock) was damaging my hands.
One day I was very frustrated and in a lot of pain. I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do, and I was considering the following:
1. Filing a workman's compensation claim. After all, it was painfully clear to me that the work environment was not ergonomic, and I was fairly sure that I could get that retail chain to pay to reverse the damage and maybe make my job less painful for me. Would this have worked? Who can say? I was 19 and had no idea what I was doing. At the time, I am not even sure that I understood how that kind of thing would work.
2. Going to my boss and asking to be transferred to another department so that I wouldn't hurt my hands anymore. Of course, that might not have worked, as there were lots of people who seemed to need wrist braces.
3. Quitting my job and looking for a new one. Ugh. This one was very unappealing, for I was very scared of being out of work. My last position had ended weirdly, and I wasn't up to seeking a new job. I was living at home and that was hell on earth, since my parents were approaching their divorce (not that any of us really knew that *then*) My grandmother had just died and I had flunked out of college. I think I flirted with the idea of going home and asking my parents to support me while I went to a local school, but I think I was afraid of flunking out *again*.
What did I do?
I called my mom. I cried to her on the phone about how I didn't know what to do.
She was calm, and soothing, and didn't try to tell me what to do, but she helped me step out of the crisis point by getting me to focus on the present. She also mentioned, in an offhand way, that she was very happy with the temp agency that had hired her, and she was sure I would qualify for some kind of office work if I wanted it.
Office work?
I hadn't even considered *that*! People in offices... didn't they have to have a *Degree*!?
No no, this was temp work anyway, and I knew my way around a computer.
This conversation gave me the courage to go directly to the store manager, that day, and give my two weeks notice. We had a very nice conversation about it, and I assured her that I didn't want any kind of workman's comp or anything, that I just couldn't do the job for her anymore and needed to learn to do something else. She was very sorry to see me leave (because I am a retail demi-goddess, after all.) I applied with the agency and they found me a nice variety of random things to do for way more money than I ever made in retail.
Beauty, huh?
One of those assignments led me to a new circle of friends. And in that circle of friends, there was a couple with a new baby. I liked them a lot, I liked the baby a lot, and I enjoyed their company. At one point I hugged each member of the couple goodbye and the whole crowd stared at me in disbelief.
"Um, did you just hug him? He... He doesn't hug..."
"Oh." I said, looking at him. He just gave me that Chow Yun Fat Enigmatic Smile. "Well I guess he hugs *ME*..." I hung out with that crowd until I had my falling-out with The Red Scare. (Oh, you'll have to go back to the beginning of the blog to read THAT story.) This was after that adorable couple with the new baby had their second baby. Also adorable.
Lo these many years later, he still has that baby. That baby is 14. And I wish I could claim him as my son because he's completely awesome and weird. He has the other baby, too, and she'd becoming a gorgeous young lady. She'll be 11 in September.
He doesn't have the wife any more, though.
I wouldn't have met him, because I was the one to introduce that circle of friends to my circle of friends. I was the one who got them all back into the con circuit, and I was the one to introduce certain unusual concepts to the group which put him in a position to be interested in me later on.
All because my hands hurt at work one day.
I also mentioned the aspect of human nature that makes it hard for us to remember to thank someone who helps us in our time of crisis.
And I wanted to talk about another idea that was used recently on Dr. Who... and while I was formulating my thoughts on the matter,
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
Either inspired by THAT post, or on his own initiative,
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
At this point, I had better jot this down before it slips away from me again.
I won't bore you with the whole explanation of the Dr. Who episode, I'll only say that they used, as a plot point, the idea that if you change one decision from your past, you can change everything about your life. Perhaps not *any* decision, but sometimes decisions that seem small (such as turning left instead of right) can turn out to have a lot more weight placed upon them than you might think. I've played with the notion of "what would happen if I hadn't made the same choice at a given point in my history?" Some of you might recall that I did so in this journal for a writing exercise when I played "Down the rabbithole" on Lewis Carroll's birthday a few years ago.
Small moments wind up defining the large moments in our lives. Sure, you can make a case for a different life if you chose a different mate, college, major, career, or city to live in. That's easy.
But what about the one tiny decision that brought you to where you are? For example, I would not know my S.O. if I hadn't injured myself working retail when I was about 19 years old.
Yep. I was working on a spectacular repetitive stress injury to my wrist. I was having some spectacular shooting pain in the wrist, arm, and hand. I would say that on any given day I'd see five people wearing wrist braces at that store, and two or more of them were in my department. Something about the way I had to handle the merchandise (on hangers, or having to use keys to get at the merchandise, or maybe the repetition of replenishing stock) was damaging my hands.
One day I was very frustrated and in a lot of pain. I wasn't sure what the hell I was going to do, and I was considering the following:
1. Filing a workman's compensation claim. After all, it was painfully clear to me that the work environment was not ergonomic, and I was fairly sure that I could get that retail chain to pay to reverse the damage and maybe make my job less painful for me. Would this have worked? Who can say? I was 19 and had no idea what I was doing. At the time, I am not even sure that I understood how that kind of thing would work.
2. Going to my boss and asking to be transferred to another department so that I wouldn't hurt my hands anymore. Of course, that might not have worked, as there were lots of people who seemed to need wrist braces.
3. Quitting my job and looking for a new one. Ugh. This one was very unappealing, for I was very scared of being out of work. My last position had ended weirdly, and I wasn't up to seeking a new job. I was living at home and that was hell on earth, since my parents were approaching their divorce (not that any of us really knew that *then*) My grandmother had just died and I had flunked out of college. I think I flirted with the idea of going home and asking my parents to support me while I went to a local school, but I think I was afraid of flunking out *again*.
What did I do?
I called my mom. I cried to her on the phone about how I didn't know what to do.
She was calm, and soothing, and didn't try to tell me what to do, but she helped me step out of the crisis point by getting me to focus on the present. She also mentioned, in an offhand way, that she was very happy with the temp agency that had hired her, and she was sure I would qualify for some kind of office work if I wanted it.
Office work?
I hadn't even considered *that*! People in offices... didn't they have to have a *Degree*!?
No no, this was temp work anyway, and I knew my way around a computer.
This conversation gave me the courage to go directly to the store manager, that day, and give my two weeks notice. We had a very nice conversation about it, and I assured her that I didn't want any kind of workman's comp or anything, that I just couldn't do the job for her anymore and needed to learn to do something else. She was very sorry to see me leave (because I am a retail demi-goddess, after all.) I applied with the agency and they found me a nice variety of random things to do for way more money than I ever made in retail.
Beauty, huh?
One of those assignments led me to a new circle of friends. And in that circle of friends, there was a couple with a new baby. I liked them a lot, I liked the baby a lot, and I enjoyed their company. At one point I hugged each member of the couple goodbye and the whole crowd stared at me in disbelief.
"Um, did you just hug him? He... He doesn't hug..."
"Oh." I said, looking at him. He just gave me that Chow Yun Fat Enigmatic Smile. "Well I guess he hugs *ME*..." I hung out with that crowd until I had my falling-out with The Red Scare. (Oh, you'll have to go back to the beginning of the blog to read THAT story.) This was after that adorable couple with the new baby had their second baby. Also adorable.
Lo these many years later, he still has that baby. That baby is 14. And I wish I could claim him as my son because he's completely awesome and weird. He has the other baby, too, and she'd becoming a gorgeous young lady. She'll be 11 in September.
He doesn't have the wife any more, though.
I wouldn't have met him, because I was the one to introduce that circle of friends to my circle of friends. I was the one who got them all back into the con circuit, and I was the one to introduce certain unusual concepts to the group which put him in a position to be interested in me later on.
All because my hands hurt at work one day.