I try to learn something new every day.  I mean it.  If I can learn something about myself, all the better.  You know, a way to improve, or perhaps something which might make me a better citizen of the world.

Yesterday, here is what I learned.  I am thick.  Thick as a brick.

The long and short of it…is this.  If you didn’t read here yesterday, I talked about my egg-cracking adventures.  Someone told me cracking eggs on the counter is the “correct way” to perform the task.  So,  for a year, I tried to perfect the counter-egg-cracking-method.  To no avail.  It was a mess.  Egg shells everywhere, broken yellows, eggs spilling all over the counter.  Disastrous.  The yolk, it turns out… was on me.

The key phrase in all of that…. “so, for a year….”

After I posted my perilous tale, many people wrote in… “Yeah. I tried that for a couple of times and it didn’t work, so I went back to the old way.” OR…. “Yes.  I heard that too.  But it didn’t prove to be very good, so I went back to how I did it before.”

WHhhhhhhhhaaaaaatttt?  After one or two times…. they learned it didn’t work?  ME???   Numbskull that I am… I continued to try…. and fail.. and try…. and fail….. in my quest to perfect this “WAY I was supposed to do something”!

There is something terribly wrong with me.   I am convinced.  But I have been this way my whole life.  If someone, especially an “expert” gives me clear instructions… I follow them.  I call it “The Nun Force”.   The behavior stems from the fear of getting it wrong… and facing the humiliation that ensues.  Welcome to Catholic Grade School of the Yesteryear.   Bad habits aside…..

I believe that often times, it is really important to follow instructions.  A great example, “Stop at a red light.”   But there are those times in life, when the instructions we are given aren’t quite right.    Or maybe… not quite right for us, in that moment.  Remember the old deal… how do you get 7?  5 + 2. Correct.  But so is 4 + 3.

This morning, I cheerfully tapped my eggs on the edge of the frying pan.  I went 4 for 4.   Lesson learned.   Another case cracked.  And you know what 4 for 4 mean?  It means… I ate.