Finding the Nit

You’re painting the house or fixing the car. Either task contains similar processes. There is the beginning, of course (!), but also setting out steps to follow once begun. Following the steps – mental of course – one learns of other steps, intermediate mini-steps, and includes them. Trial and error keeps us going. The paint bucket is stirred, brushes prepared, bucket hook attached to bucket. The ladder is positioned, bucket and hook grabbed, and up the ladder we go! To the desired spot. The bucket is hooked to the ladder step, the brush is dipped into the paint, and the brush is patted on the inside lip of the bucket, then withdrawn and the brush with paint is swiped over the surface of the house’s siding. Painting is underway. Fresh dips of brush into the paint and work progresses on the surface to be covered until the ladder needs to be repositioned. Of course that means a trip down the ladder with the bucket and brush, move the ladder, climb the ladder, and resume painting. You get the picture.

Lots of steps to follow. Much is repetitive. We encounter a tree limb near the side of the house, and figure out a way to continue painting without cutting down the tree! We encounter a corner and reposition the ladder to be able to paint both planes of the house. And, too, we find soffit, fascia, window trim and a host of other items that need painting and require different approaches.

In time the house is painted. My first time took 6 months. First was the scraping. And some sanding. Then filler and primer coats. Planning the attack for the day or weekend, or vacation week…the project was all consuming that first summer of ownership. 120 gallons later the house was done. In November I gazed on my handiwork and appreciated how the house looked. I also stood in awe of the magnitude of the task.

For historical perspective, this was 1972 and we were a family of three with one salary for income. And the commute was brutal, four hours each day. Money was tight. Experience of home ownership was nil. The motivation was great and the willingness, too. One learned what one wished to accomplish. And then did it. Perhaps not perfectly but a vast improvement over what conditions existed before.

In two years paint was falling off the house! I planned a new attack and figured I’d paint each side on successive years. Paint for one month each year and the house would look terrific until I could afford the final solution: aluminum siding!  And we did.

The central element of the task is the nit. The irreducible point that makes up the bulk of the task to be done. Like fixing the car. You have to understand why you want to fix it, why it’s a good idea, what is actually wrong (The Diagnosis), what is the fix (The Mechanic’s Solution), how does one find both the diagnosis and the solution (The Research Stage), and so on until the tools, courage and time is found to tackle the said task.

The project has many nits embedded in it to be learned before the final product is to be had. Like painting the house. Stages and stages overlaid on yet other stages make up the project to be done.

Move on to larger projects. Larger issues. Some are related to household, the long term family future, plans for college and saving/investing for that eventuality. But then some are related to community, region and nation. Later, when age has accumulated to several decades, one recognizes the projects required by the global community.

When acting alone, fresh out of school, unmarried and still seeking a personal life, the nit is pretty simple. Later as people are added to the ‘community’ in the form of family and then neighborhood and larger communities, we are each endowed with talents, skills and experiences that enable us to accomplish more for more people who are mostly strangers to us. They are still real, however; they are still fellows in our communities.

Communities of faith, family, career, town, city, state and nation. All are real. All are filled with the people who matter to someone else, not just you. It is the continuity of mankind that draws us outward and upward, I think. A larger calling to make things happen that are good for others. And in turn good for each one of us including those closest to us.

It all matters. The nits of responsibility, task and obligation are everywhere among us. They ask to be done. To be consumed and adopted for the common good.

How American that thinking is. How universal it is as well! This is not alone the concern of Africa or Asia, Russia, or France. Nor do we consider what is different between Ukraine and Latvia, or Denmark or Sweden. We are all citizens of the world and we are required to act like it.

I don’t know why this is so important to me. But it is important. With passage of time it becomes even more important.

I wonder if we know what the stakes are of our citizenship. Do we sense the consequences if we don’t act, don’t believe, don’t respect all of the global community?

I think too many don’t get it. That means the rest of us have to trumpet the message to them and increase the call for assistance.

Do you think we can do this? Make a difference?

December 10, 2014