Bettering

I could do better.  You could do better.   

And the whole lot of us could do a lot worse.  

So what’s the point of “going above and beyond the call of duty”?  If it’s not urgent, important, completely necessary or life-threatening, why bother?  If it’s “passable” – if it’s “good enough for government work” – why not just let it go, get it out the door and move on?

“ … one of the reasons artists in fifteenth century Florence made such great things was that they believed they could make great things. They were intensely competitive and were always trying to outdo one another, like mathematicians or physicists today—maybe like anyone who has ever done anything really well.”  Paul Graham

Maybe the point – for them – was that it mattered – to them.   

The thought for today is about “Out-Gooding” ourselves.

A prominent minister related an embarrassing incident that brought home a lesson in “Servant Leadership”.  As he was leaving the church one Sunday, he found one of his distinguished Board Members – a prominent surgeon – walking along the side of the road in front of the church picking up trash.  He was compelled to stop and inquire – with some degree of incredulity – what the nature of this unexpected engagement really was.  Quite simply, the surgeon explained, there was a perceived need and he was simply making the need disappear. 

Here was an individual who would have – in his normal work environment – 10-15 nurses, aides, house staff, technicians and support specialists at his command to handle the incidentals.  Why not here at the church? 

Quite apart from the fact that the church has a completely different “command and control” structure, there is an over-riding “situational imperative” here: 

Do the most good you can do wherever it is you NOW find yourself.

Obviously, the best “good” the surgeon could do in the operating room would be to save someone’s life, as all the support team was doing the “best good” they could do in their respective supporting roles.  But the “best good” the surgeon could do following church services – on this particular day – was to make this particular distraction disappear – probably not dissimilar from removing a tumor from a patient, but simply using different resources available – nothing more than his own two hands. 

For him, it mattered!

Perhaps he couldn’t stand trash.  Perhaps he wanted “better” for his Community of Faith.  Perhaps he needed the exercise.  Perhaps he needed some mindless active engagement while contemplating the sermon of the day or the next week’s surgeries or the death of one of his patients last week.  Perhaps all of the above!   Whatever the underlying reason or reasons, he was doing the most good he could do in the place he happened be, seeing the need for something to be done and simply DOING it. 

Back in the operating room, there were a lot more ponderous “Betterings” to be done:  More efficient and effective surgical procedures to be devised with better patient recovery times; better supportive care; lower infection rates; streamlined processes; better “staging” of patients; Etc.

Here we encounter an apparent visioning paradox:  Things appearing to be done “for no good reason” might actually be being done “for every good reason”!  Climbing a mountain “simply because it’s there” not only gets us to the top of the mountain but gives us a breathtaking vista, capacitizes and incentivizes us to climb other mountains, and gives us a running start for whichever way out, over or across we want to go – and it’s all downhill!  Instead of just two-dimensional degrees of freedom wandering to and fro about the “plains”, we get 3D! 

“Bettering” ourselves, our work and our world actually has no downside – other than sacrificing all the “nothing” we might rather be doing.  It puts us in a more competitive position, globally, increases the currency of engagement, engenders a sense of accomplishment, and contributes toward satisfaction and self esteem. 

“Bettering” doesn’t have to be about BIG things.  And nobody else has to know about it.   

When going to the grocery, take a shopping cart IN!   

The greatest tragedy is not to care.  Care a little.  CARE a LOT!  Do something that matters to you.  Do something that matters to somebody else.  Do something that makes some positive difference, period.  Let’s get BETTER at caring and doing things that matter, and see what a bright world this can be!  Quartermaster 

“Do all the good you can. 

By all the means you can. 

In all the ways you can. 

In all the places you can.

At all the times you can.

To all the people you can.

As long as ever you can.”

John Wesley