Another repair.
I expect cars to never breakdown. I also expect green lights. I'm always disappointed.
My regular mechanic is across town. I couldn't drive that far, so I parked it at a local repair shop, dropped the keys in the night slot. Next morning, I get the call.
"Your oil pump isn't working. And we'll need to replace all the belts and the water pump."I don't know if a mechanic is taking advantage of me. I took high school auto mechanics but all I learned was how to steal tools. I mean, if he said the hood needs a paint job I'd be a little suspect. But belts, pumps, plugs...I just need it working. Tell me what it costs. I've got to trust him.
I just replaced the belts and water pump.
"You did?"
Yeah.
"Let me talk to the mechanic."
Let me send a tow truck.
We instilled that lesson in our kids, that trust is one of the most critical traits they can develop. The more you lie to us, the more you lie to yourself. That doesn't mean shit to a five year old so I think we said if we trust you, you'll earn more "stuff". We moved to earn more "freedom" when they got older.
Why was this lesson at the top of the list? Because, ONE, it's that important and, TWO, I sucked at it. I threw my grade card in the drain and said I lost it. I said I was late because a dog chased me. It became habit. It caught up to me.
Trust. Sounds easy. Judging by the widespread display of dishonesty by leaders (political, religious, education), it's anything but. Zen has it's own boogers in the woodpile.
- A Zen teacher so drunk he had to be propped up by students
- A Zen teacher having sex with his students without telling them he had AIDS
- A Zen teacher having female students expose their breasts for the sake of practice
Men and women of great intelligence are fallible. Their folly can cause great harm. It is incumbent upon our leaders to know themselves, to do the work to such a degree that their shortcomings--when they manifest--do little damage. A teacher once told me that understanding must precede power.
And Socrates said "The measure of a man is what he does with power."My regular mechanic, the one I trust, towed the car to his shop.
He fixed it with the correct oil filter.
An oil filter.
Men and women are fallible...men and women of great intelligence are the most fallible and often fall 'victim' to the greatest 'fallacies...' and most often to the greatest depressions.
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