A Monkey-wrench in the Works

The term ‘monkey-wrench’ is, of course, used colloquially and not even accurately (what  I’m referring to is an adjustable wrench named after its inventor, a man named Charles Moncky—not ‘monkey).  A better phrase would be ‘sand in the gears,’ or better yet the word would be ‘entropy’ (the degree of disorder in a system; an ultimate state of inert uniformity).  What I’m really talking about is the fact that things are running down all around us—including ourselves.  Contrary to the song title, we are not ‘Forever Young.’  We get a good night’s sleep and then look in the mirror in the morning and we look worse than ever.  We are always fighting entropy.  Alas. 

So, what do we do about it?  We keep fighting, but we fight smarter. 

We shift to a different gear.  Instead of trying to do great in something we used to do great in,--using the same old equipment or techniques or outmoded methods-- we either update or shift to something else that we might learn to do great in or we get into a different bracket.  Golf, for me, is a good example.  Instead of trying to compete with the young guys, I move to the ‘senior division,’ or now the ‘super senior’s.’ I also use the new equipment and analyze the current 'best practices.'  By working hard at it you will occasionally find, to your great satisfaction, that you can still, occasionally, beat the young guys.  We use our experience and we use our brains. If we were never great in anything before, we should not conclude that we can’t be great in something that we are yet to discover.  Discovery of a new challenge and then accomplishing it is the spice of life. 

The thing that is astonishing to me, is that in some things we can still do very well if we can simply adapt to the new challenges by adapting to the new technology/products/approaches/increased knowledge that is available.  And much is available—we just need to start looking and adjusting. 

A book that I am now reading, That Used to be Us, by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum, develops the point that for the United States to be the great country it used to be, we need to start believing in ourselves again.  We would do well, they say, to adopt the United States Air Force doctrine of OODA (observe, orient, decide, act).  They further say that "Our biggest problem is that we've strayed so far from our own best practices [of] focus, moral authority, seriousness, collective action and stick-to-itiveness (p. 11)."  

My point, today, is that we must, as Winston Churchill said, “never, never give up.” Just adapt.  It is a life imperative that we ‘Be all you can be’ at any age, under any challenges, under whatever circumstances you find yourself.  

If you find nothing else (which I doubt), you will find, at least, that you are an inspiration to someone else who has not worked as hard or as smart as you.  And it is no small thing to be an inspiration.