“Inspiration does
exist, but it must find you working.” – Pablo Picasso
I reflect back to a moment
when my daughter was 12 years old, and she was in the unenviable position of
being the sole participant in what was to be a “group” project for her French
class. They were to write a short skit in French, for the team members to read
aloud in class. Her team consisted of only three kids, including herself. She
was especially frustrated with the boy on her team because he made it very
clear that he did not want to contribute. The other girl was willing, though
not very familiar with the language. My daughter has a good ear for language,
so she took it upon herself to take charge.
“I have so much to do by
tomorrow. And all Herberto said was, “No” to everything I asked him to do. That’s
not fair!”
She needed a few moments to
catch her breath, then a mischievous smile formed as quickly as her solution
took shape.
“Since I’m writing the script, he’ll have to read what I
write. Hahaha.”
She dove right into the
project without further complaint. Every time she typed his name in the script,
she purposely misspelled it: “Scene deu: Hairy
Bear Toe (waiter) enters….”
I tried to temper her plan,
but she was determined to show him not to burden her with his laziness.
“I know, I’ll only misspell it on his copy!” She
chuckled as she continued to weave her mischief into the script.
“He’s not going to know how to pronounce any of this!” she
giggled, “But neither will I.”
The following day after
school, I asked her how the play went. She smiled, “He never noticed the misspellings
and the ‘group’ got an A.”
“You know what? Doing all
this work actually helped me learn French more!”
She learned a lot through
this, though I’m not sure she learned the life lesson I initially was trying to
impart when I discouraged her sneakiness. Granted, her reach toward humor made
the injustice of being saddled with a team project, not only bearable, but a
creative canvass. Once I let go and just observed how she could transform this
moment from victim to victor, I also relinquished to the simplicity of:
“If you obey all the rules,
you will miss all the fun.” –Katherine Hepburn
Ella Venezia
Copyright © 2012 Ella Venezia.
All Rights Reserved.
Cute story! To move forward, sometimes it's more about tricking ourselves than the other person. :-)
ReplyDeleteMichael,
DeleteSo glad you enjoyed this snapshot moment. Excellent and very thought provoking point you made. Tricking ourselves can either inspire us toward moving forward (as in this case) or entrap us in our prison of perceived realities. As in the case where we tell ourselves stories that we believe (about ourselves or others), thereby, stunting our progress.
I always enjoy your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by.
-Ella