One day, at a fairly young age, I was thrusting the basketball toward the hoop in our back yard. Quite unsuccessfully, I might add. The ten foot high rim may as well have been the moon. I was lucky to hit the bottom of the net, let alone make a basket.
But on that day, one of my brothers, or my Dad, was working on something in the garage. There was a level in the toolbox. I thought it looked very Neat-o Guido. I mean. It had those bubbles in the lime green liquid and all.
I asked. They explained. And then I knew what a level was. A device which tells you when a surface is level or…plumb.
What I wouldn’t give to have such a device in the day-to-day surface of things.
Theoretically, it would go like this. I would approach a situation… pull out my level… and it would tell me immediately if the people were on an even keel, or if they were all misaligned. And then I would know.
I would not try to fix the situation. Not at all.
But if something started to slide in my direction… you know…. sliding off that slanted surface right toward me… I’d be ready. I’d be on the lookout.
I could duck and dodge.
Yet. Without my level… I would not know. And I’d probably get thunked on the head.
Much like today. Blindsided. Meteor shower… right out of nowhere. Thunked.
Tomorrow, I am going to the Home Depot and buying one of those levels, with the lime green juice. And hope beyond all hope….. that the bubble always stay right between the lines.
“True stability results when presumed order and presumed disorder are balanced. A truly stable system expects the unexpected, is prepared to be disrupted, waits to be transformed.” – Tom Robbins
