Son, That Slide You Are Going Up Is Getting You Nowhere!

This past weekend I found myself with my wife and kids at a small park. My 3-yr. old, an expert on parks at this point, ran amuck on the playground equipment. He flew across the monkey bars, down the slides, and over the sand. My 1-yr. old on the other hand is not so quite accomplished as his brother. He required assistance the entire time. Whether it was going down a slide, up a platform, or through a tunnel, I needed to be there every step of the way helping him when he needed it.

Eventually my 1-yr. old decided that he wanted to do things on his own, so knowing the value of learning I allowed him to do just that. I still hovered around in case something would happened. At one point I sat on a bench a short little distance off while he attempted to ascend a slide to reach a platform above him. With each step he took forward he would eventually slip, fall on his face, and slide back down to the beginning. Despite these setbacks his 1-yr. old spirit would not be broken. So as stubborn as an ass, a trait of the Thompson bloodline dating back to my father, he would renew his ascent, only to fall on his face once more and slide back to the beginning of his journey. He continued this routine several times until the lack of progress finally brought him to rethink his course, and he climbed off the slide. Upon removing himself from the slide he discovered to his amazement another method of ascending to his goal before unknown to him, even though it was literally next to the slide, and he soon went about conquering this new obstacle.

As I watched my son conquer this new route, with some slight assistance from daddy, and reach his goal of the platform above, I couldn’t help but be proud of him. As we celebrated in his victory I thought how uncanny it was that for progress to be made to reach his goal all that was required was for him to begin his ascent once more from the beginning, but this time down a different avenue. Because the slide he was going up was getting him nowhere.

Humans are an interesting creature. We progress as a race with out of the box thinking. Fire being made from slamming two rocks together. The internet from seeking a database to share knowledge faster across universities. A smartphone from wanting to eliminate the need for a collection of CD's. Each of these great inventions came about from wanting to do things different than they were done before, and as a community we relish these inventions. But the contradiction arises in the fact that 9 times out of the 10 we would proceed to business as usual than throw a wrench in the plan. Let me elaborate with a story from a few weeks back.

On a recent occasion grocery shopping my sons grew hungry. Knowing there was a McDonalds/gas station hybrid within the same parking lot as the grocery store, I promised my children if they would behave themselves I would treat each of them to a happy meal. So of course, they behaved a bit better than usual. So as promised I pulled into the parking lot for McDonalds. I intended to go through the drive through, but upon noticing the line wrapping around the store I decided it would be quicker to go inside. So, with my family waiting patiently in the car I walked inside, only to be greeted by a giant line there as well. I took my place in line at the end and waited in what resembled the non-moving lines at the DMV. After about 2 minutes of non-movement I began to look around the room and that was when I noticed it. A kiosk for placing your order. As a bolt of lightning I went straight to the kiosk, which surprisingly had no line and quickly ordered my meal. In a matter of moments, I was walking out the doors, Happy Meals in hand, bypassing over 10 people still waiting in the needless line to place their order.

Who in hell would wait in this? Maybe if it was the last Big Mack ever...maybe.

You might ask yourself what does McDonalds have to do with doing things as usual? The answer is surprisingly a question. If you were in my shoes what course would you have taken: wait in the line to order, or skip the line and use the kiosk? Without taking a poll it is safe to assume that each of you have answered, “Ummm…the kiosk. Duh.” But if that is your answer, then why did the 10+ people I bypassed by using the kiosk not follow the same course as me? Throws quite a conundrum into the simplicity of the answer. If it would save them time, and the pain of having to wait in the line why did the other people not use the lineless kiosk? “Perhaps they did not know they could do it” you say. Which would be a viable reason, if the fact did not exist that people clearly saw me order my food on one. “Perhaps then they needed special orders for their meal?” you rebuttal. Which again as a defense has some weight, but I find highly unlikely that every individual in that line besides myself had special needs for their order. “So then for what reason did the people in the line add distress to themselves willing?” you ask. The answer, monotony through complacence.

As a human race we are a complacent creature. We naturally form habits and behaviors based upon survival needs, such food, water, shelter, etc. We discover a method that holds true to acquiring an end and we stick with that method, even if perhaps a new method is introduced; because once again our survival needs know the other method can be met with the already learned behavior. This tendency was demonstrated in the example of the line at McDonalds. The people clearly saw I had ordered a meal through the kiosk, but no one tried to follow my path. Why? Because, their learned behaviors told their primal needs that the course they were heading down would yield success, whereas this newly observed path was filled with skepticism for success. In short, we stick with the path we have traveled before, because, we know for certain that it will get us to our destination, as opposed to the fork in the road we have never traversed.

This behavior, although prudent, is also destructive in nature. A stance of procedure as usual often bars up one’s own thinking, and ability. It causes one to be pulled away from avenues, to limit their filter glass of life through a single lens and miss out on opportunities; if they had been willing to push against their own conformities. Ultimately, it will cause a person to rely less and less upon the outside world, and rely wholly upon themselves, often to their own detriment. The greatest sin in always yielding to the animalistic urge of normalcy shuts the gate of progress, whether in a person’s life or the world at large.

Think about it for a second. For hundreds of years, during the period aptly named the dark ages, there little to none progress in the world of medicine, engineering, and social progress. Why? Because the minds of the time prohibited thinking that went against the grain. But when the compliance of conformity began to be questioned the dark ages turned into the renaissance. Social changes in government, and religious entities began to flutter across the world. Technology as the printing press came in being. The general practices in medicine began to be questioned to their validity and brought about a reformation and growth. All these things occurred because people began to step out of the proverbial line they had been commanded to stand in and go up to the kiosk of progress.

Imagine where the world would be without people like Ignaz Semmelweis, who questioned the established status quo of doctors not washing hand prior to and after procedures as the cause of mother deaths at childbirth, instead of some unknown transfer of diseases the medical community attributed it to. Without his research into the use of antiseptic, and his accumulated data that proved washing hands after and prior to procedures greatly reduces death rates, would we be where we are today in the world of medicine? Without women like Frances Perkins, who questioned the unsafe, and inhuman conditions of the working force would we have the labor laws that we have today? Without enquirers like Steve Jobs, who questioned the limits of our informational systems, and their relative size and uses, would I even have this laptop I am now typing this blog on? If no one was to ever question the slide they are climbing up and falling flat on their face on, like my 1-yr. old did, these alleyways of progress would remain undiscovered. Yet even progress with all its clearly visible benefits, has a cost to its proponents. Namely the conformists of the world and the faults within ourselves. Let me explain.

Pictured left to right: Ignaz Semmelweis, Frances Perkins, and Steve Jobs

When pushing against established precepts, and egos, you can expect those precepts and egos held by the clear majority to push back. For Ignaz Semmelweis, despite proven data, the medical community at large rejected his notion that cleaning hands prior and after surgeries saved lives. This would ultimately drive him away from the institution he worked at, partly to his own inability to keep his ego in check and push back the advancement of antiseptics for years. For Frances Perkins, her relentless character for due process, and equality, brought heavy levels of scrutiny, and a tribunal for impeachment that left her a ghostly member of FDR’s cabinet. For Steve Jobs, his drastic goals and foresight, caused him to often misstep social cues of the business world right in front of him, and not realize till it was too late as he was pushed out the door by Apple’s board of directors.

Ultimately every trailblazer for progress will be confronted with the two realities of the comformists of the world and personal faults. The Neanderthal’s of the world will always push back against the use of fire, and tools to better their lives, simply because their primal urges tell them that what they did before brought success, so why shake things up. The trail blazer will have to deal with their own short comings to ensure the path they have discovered will be accessible to future hikers. Each problem is solved ironically by the same thing, time, which I know is something we have become disenfranchised to in this 4G, soon to be 5G, world we live in. But it was time that allowed not only Semmelweis to get over himself and write the book on his findings his supporters had been urging him to, but for his discovery to turn the hearts of the medical community. It was time that allowed Frances Perkins to continue her equality crusade and ride out her glory days in the success of teaching the leaders of tomorrow at Cornell University. Time is what allowed Steve Jobs to evaluate his missteps, and when time passed, and the board knew they needed him back at the helm, the moment they came crawling back he would be able to establish personal parameters, so an outing like before would never happen again.

As you navigate your way towards progress remember it takes time. But perhaps the most obvious and glaring truth of progress was first stated with 1-yr. old. If you are getting nowhere with the path you are currently climbing, it is time to choose a new one. You can exert effort, push your personal limits, and invest a vast amount of time into an endeavor, career, or project; but, when a certain threshold of time has elapsed, and you find yourself still where you began, you need to look around as my son did and find another avenue towards progress. Because the slide you are going up is getting you nowhere, and in the jungle gym of life there are countless ways to reach the plateau above you are shooting for. Often too, the path to progress is just right next to the slide you are currently climbing as with my son. All you need is a chance to step off, readjust, and notice it. Might I suggest you try the monkey bars?