No, this is not about burning fossil fuels and creating green house gases. Though the oil we put in our vehicles is analogous to what we need to improve our lives. I am talking about maintenance. Run a vehicle 30,000 miles without changing the oil, or run a vehicle low on oil a few thousand miles, and it will become damaged; if not pull off the road, roll over 4 tires to the sky, and croak for the sense of relief that would bring.
Our cars are made of parts that wear against each other and require oil to insure the friction is absorbed by the oil and not the metal parts moving fractions of an inch next to each other. My life is like my car in many ways.
A car broken down on the side of the road is useless to itself, its owner, and any future buyers of cars. A car has value when it runs, reliably, efficiently, and in a well maintained state of grace. I have experienced many tensions my life, similar to metal whirring against other metal surfaces. Oiling those tensions, reducing the friction with positive action and maintenance have kept those times from getting the best of me.
Understanding what one is involved in and experiencing is essential maintenance. Avoiding getting involved in things one doesn't understand is also essential maintenance. Clint Eastwood as Harry Callaghan, or Dirty Harry, said in the movie, Magnum Force: 'A man's got to know his limitations'. Leaving unsaid, 'Or, be overwhelmed by them.' Right on the money.
Learning as much about the world I live in expands the number of doors I can enter while knowing to expect after passing through, and not be overwhelmed by what I don't know beyond that door. I am not a doctor, so I don't try to dispense medicine for myself or family. I am not a builder, so I hired someone to build my garage so it would last. I don't know auto mechanics, beyond what the owner's manual teaches me, so I don't try to repair my own vehicles when a thunk is heard under the hood. The list of what I don't know grows every year, as human civilization advances its knowledge and understanding at a record pace.
I could let that fact alone overwhelm me. But, I don't. I am a sales manager as I finish my last year in college in business administration. I work with people to help them decide the best way to fill their desire for electronics. I know my product line, I keep up with the latest innovations whether my company carries them or not. I listen to my customers explain what they want, and direct them to the best product to fill that want. My customers like me and my service. And I like them and serving them.
I didn't go to college to get a degree in parenting. But, I will become a parent. I didn't go to college to get a degree in marital relations. But, I will get married. I do understand however, that there is a great deal to learn about both parenting and being a good spouse. And I read about stuff like that in magazines, and our newspaper and on the internet.
I don't know what makes happiness. I know that I am happy most of the time. And I know that what I am happy about is that my life is going the way I choose it to go. I decided what I wanted and I am working to make what I want a reality. I oil my impatience with confidence in the future, and I am happy with my progress. My employer is happy with me, and I with my employment, and that is in part due to the fact that I change the oil in my car every 7000 miles as the service manual says to, which means I show up to work on time and get home safe.
My plans don't always work out as I expect. But, the neat thing about plans, is they can be altered, or even traded in on new ones. That is applying oil to stuff in life that happens. You know that modern saying, "Stuff Happens". We all need to know how to oil it, and slide past it, without getting scraped and bumped along the way.
I told my Dad a year or so ago that I was happy with the way my life is going. He said, you are young, it will pass. My Dad is not always so cynical, and he laughed a bit when he said that. My Dad has experienced a number of deep scrapes and bumps in his life, and he has become a bit twisted by them. He has been divorced once, spent a short time in jail for a fight he got into over a fender bender, and he drinks more than he should. He dislikes being unemployed even more than the job he had as a foreman on housing construction.
My Dad has taught me a lot in my life. But, the most important thing I learned from him is that if I don't take care of my life and oil it when it gets rough, I will be damaged by my life, and lose control of it, and it will not permit me to continue to be the happy person I am today.
Oil is the stuff of life. Maintenance is an ongoing activity. Keeping friction down and things moving ahead smoothly, going around things instead of through them, and offering others a hand with the confidence that one day I may need theirs, is how I intend to keep my happiness going. I am not going to let my life come to a grinding halt because I didn't take care to change the oil, pay that bill, return that favor, or read that article or book about something I need to know about.
In a few million years when I come back as oil, I intend to come back as premium black gold.
(With respect to Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance).
Jeff, really fine article. Good chuckles and insight too. I have heard of that book referenced several times. Looks like I will get it for a gift for hubbie, then I can read it, and tell him all about it :-)
Jeff
Thanks for the very wise article. This is a topic most people know is important, but, wish they thought about and were aware of a lot more often, I suspect. Well done.
Hey, thanks Marcie and David. Appreciate the feedback. We need to help more folks become aware of this site though. I will email my friends, and ask them for their feedback.