Both of these guys are technically “under” the load of work, but one’s in control and one’s not. One’s getting somewhere and one’s drowning.
Let me tell a story here about my days as a high-school teacher. I was absolutely terrible at keeping up with my papergrading during my first four years. That guy clinging to the raft had nothing on me. After a break from teaching I went back, this time determined to do better. I just couldn’t live that way for the rest of my life, I thought. So I came up with a plan, an unwitting accommodation to my Obliger nature, in which I simply told my students when they’d get their papers back. Then I had to get them done. It was as simple as that. Suddenly I was surfing along on my work. The workload itself had not shrunk; in fact, it had gotten much bigger because of the nature of the new classes I was teaching. But I had gained a larger vision of what I wanted my life to be like, and that vision did not include an ever-looming pile of work that was always threatening to overwhelm me.
It never occurred to me that my students might be talking outside of class about my papergrading promptness, but of course they were. Students talk about everything that goes on in a classroom. So one day at lunch another teacher confronted me: I was making the rest of them look bad. His students were asking, “Why can’t you get our papers back to us as fast as Miss Baerg does?” But, he said, I was single and lived alone (true) and he was married with two small children and heavily involved with ministries at church on the weekends (also true). So there was no way he could get his papers graded as fast as I did. For him, the wave had broken over his head. I didn’t know how to answer him and kind of spluttered and sputtered.
But now, looking back on that conversation, I wish I’d said something like: “Yes, your life is much more crowded with commitments than mine is. I can hole up for a weekend and do nothing but grade papers; that’s impossible for you.” (Although I will add an editorial comment here and point out that his ministry commitments, while laudable, were his choice.) “So it’s even more important for you than for me to keep caught up on your work, because you have far less wiggle room in your schedule than I do.” I think this guy was one of several men on the faculty who were known for regularly staying up all night to get papers graded. We were teaching in a small private Christian school and the salaries weren’t large. In order to support a family, most married men had extra jobs on the weekends. My only dependent was a Chihuahua, and she didn’t eat much.
But the principle remains, then and now: the bigger the wave, the greater the need to stay on top. It’s easier to keep up than to catch up, as the old saying goes. Old sayings become old because they’re true. (Usually.) So, in the spirit of keeping up, I’m continuing my planning for the Friday night reception of the Cherry Creek Chorale. The newest recipe posted for this event is one for Lemon-Raspberry Cream Cupcakes. I hope to keep surfing along on this particular wave!
Let me tell a story here about my days as a high-school teacher. I was absolutely terrible at keeping up with my papergrading during my first four years. That guy clinging to the raft had nothing on me. After a break from teaching I went back, this time determined to do better. I just couldn’t live that way for the rest of my life, I thought. So I came up with a plan, an unwitting accommodation to my Obliger nature, in which I simply told my students when they’d get their papers back. Then I had to get them done. It was as simple as that. Suddenly I was surfing along on my work. The workload itself had not shrunk; in fact, it had gotten much bigger because of the nature of the new classes I was teaching. But I had gained a larger vision of what I wanted my life to be like, and that vision did not include an ever-looming pile of work that was always threatening to overwhelm me.
It never occurred to me that my students might be talking outside of class about my papergrading promptness, but of course they were. Students talk about everything that goes on in a classroom. So one day at lunch another teacher confronted me: I was making the rest of them look bad. His students were asking, “Why can’t you get our papers back to us as fast as Miss Baerg does?” But, he said, I was single and lived alone (true) and he was married with two small children and heavily involved with ministries at church on the weekends (also true). So there was no way he could get his papers graded as fast as I did. For him, the wave had broken over his head. I didn’t know how to answer him and kind of spluttered and sputtered.
But now, looking back on that conversation, I wish I’d said something like: “Yes, your life is much more crowded with commitments than mine is. I can hole up for a weekend and do nothing but grade papers; that’s impossible for you.” (Although I will add an editorial comment here and point out that his ministry commitments, while laudable, were his choice.) “So it’s even more important for you than for me to keep caught up on your work, because you have far less wiggle room in your schedule than I do.” I think this guy was one of several men on the faculty who were known for regularly staying up all night to get papers graded. We were teaching in a small private Christian school and the salaries weren’t large. In order to support a family, most married men had extra jobs on the weekends. My only dependent was a Chihuahua, and she didn’t eat much.
But the principle remains, then and now: the bigger the wave, the greater the need to stay on top. It’s easier to keep up than to catch up, as the old saying goes. Old sayings become old because they’re true. (Usually.) So, in the spirit of keeping up, I’m continuing my planning for the Friday night reception of the Cherry Creek Chorale. The newest recipe posted for this event is one for Lemon-Raspberry Cream Cupcakes. I hope to keep surfing along on this particular wave!
