I don’t believe in the right way to do something.
My kids just think I’m messed up.
Most people just don’t know or realize.
Let me explain.
I’m left-handed and right-handed. I eat and write left-handed, but sports or activities I learned as a kid I do right-handed. So I throw and bat right-handed, shoot a basketball, and golf right-handed.
Things I taught myself, though, I do left-handed – shoot pool, throw Frisbee, bowl, kick or punt (ok, left-footed), play tennis, and ping-pong – all with my left hand. I’ve never been fleet of foot but there were times when I played tennis that it looked like the ball would be out of reach. I switched my racket to my other hand and frustrated a few opponents in the day by hitting the ball back over the net.
A friend of mine in high school went to a military elementary school. He is naturally a left-hander but that was not “uniform” and had his hand beaten when he tried to use his left hand to write. He still has difficulty with any kind of coordination activities.
That’s why I don’t believe in the “right” way to do something. I don’t believe God picked a path for us; I believe God picked a destination. There may be a more direct route but sometimes the long path is more creative or more interesting. We can learn as much from our diversions and dirt paths and bumpy roads as we do following the line down the middle of the highway.
To me, the process is as important as the product. Telling people which path to take is as just as debilitating as forcing them to use their other hand. All of us have paid “stupid tax” along the way for our bad decisions. But they were typically a decision where we learned something. We simply need to be accepting and willing to forgive and praying for the end. Not the path.
2 thoughts on “No Right Way”
Funny last Sunday I talked to my High school Sunday class. I talked about two paths and each has a destination. One leads to eternity with God and the other does not. God watches only one path, not the other. God doesn’t send people to hell. People do, by picking their own path. Studied and tore apart Psalms 1….so many analogies with paths.
I especially love this as: #1 I witnessed the “retraining” of left handed people in Catholic School, #2 I have a left handed son-in-law, and #3 I think I will have a left handed grandson. That observation aside, those side paths are the most fulfilling!!! Thanks, again, for your wonderful insight.