Hold on a dadgum minute!
Sleet? Freezing rain? Icy roads? What’s up with that? It was almost 80 degrees last week!
We are so spoiled in north central Texas.
We have about a half-dozen actual “winter” days for the entire winter. But the world shuts down and we freak out on those days.
I’ve spent a good part of this morning canceling some meetings and attempting to reschedule others.
And for the next couple of days, we’ll hunker down and try to stay warm.
My friends in places that have actual winter laugh at us. And some of them actually live in Texas!
I remember our first January here in 1985. I was a student as Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Mrs. Sweetie was teaching first grade at Walnut Creek Elementary School in Azle.
We got up one morning and saw the notice on TV that school was canceled. Having moved here from the Amarillo area, we thought there must have been a blizzard overnight. Surely we’d be snowed in for days.
I looked out the window and saw a dusting of snow that was so pitiful that I could still see the grass in our yard.
Who cancels school for this?
Apparently people who know that it’s crazy out there when people who don’t deal with real winter have to drive on winter-ish roads.
Since then we’ve had a few real winter storms and, of course, we’re all a little gun shy after Snowmaggedon ’21 when ERCOT became a household cuss word.And since I have been in a position for a few years now to be the one who makes the call on whether or not things get canceled, I’ve gained a new appreciation for my fellow call-makers.
Sometimes we get it right. Sometimes we get it wrong. At no time is there unanimous agreement and support.
One person thinks we’re being silly if we cancel. Another thinks we’re being reckless if we don’t. And EVERYONE has an opinion.
Perhaps the fact that everyone has an opinion is part of the problem—not the fact that the opinion exists, but that we often feel compelled to share our opinions in a way that belittles those whose opinions differ from ours.
“Whose brilliant idea was this?” The unspoken—but obviously intended—message of that question is that neither the idea nor the person has approached anything remotely resembling brilliance.
I’ve discovered that most of us have no idea whatsoever about all the factors that went into a decision made by anyone but ourselves.
What might it be like if we conceded that we don’t have all the information?
What might it be like if we asked real, legit questions out of curiosity and a desire to learn before we offered our opinions?
What if we were to use the momentary pause to consider what this decision makes possible?
I happen to think that might just be amazing.
Be amazing today, my friend.
