Change

“If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction.”  Dietrich Bonhoffer

This crossed my screen in reading some things about change.  I know it to be correct, but still, I have spent a good deal of time “running along the corridor in the other direction” when the more productive thing to do would have been – well, the more productive thing would have been almost anything else.  In this I am reminded of a boat trip we took on the lake some years ago to celebrate a friend’s birthday.  The company ran several boats from a single dock, and shortly after we departed it became apparent that an Asian woman on our boat (who spoke limited English) had boarded the wrong boat.  At that point, there was little do about it as our boats were well apart.  I assume she weighed her options, recognized we had food and alcohol, and seemingly didn’t warrant her resorting to a life jacket.  In short, rather than run on the deck toward her boat (and lacking the ability to run on water) she simply partied with us for the next few hours.

Of course, I need not always resign myself to a “bad” situation, but once I find myself there, there are always other options beyond just pissing and moaning about it – the equivalent of “running along the corridor in the other direction.”