I sat down at my desk at 8:00am this morning and when I looked up it was 5pm and it was time to go home and I still had about 30 e-mails in my queue that needed answering and they were all marked URGENT! NOW! ANSWER ME 5 MINUTES AGO ALREADY! It's like if toddlers could type and you got messages that said MOMOMOMOMOMOMOMOM! PLEEEEAAAZZZEE! WHY CAN'T I WATCH TV NOWWWWW?!!!!
I think we need to have a talk about urgent and important. Some things are urgent. Some things are important, and some things are both. That last category is very, very small, however and would include things like a woman in labor or incoming rocket fire or there is a tornado coming fast and you need to get underground. Everything else is usually one or the other, but not both. (Unless you are a teenage girl or a toddler to whom everything is important and urgent. Teenage boys, I understand, find nothing urgent, not even rocket fire, unless it is on a video screen and they are causing it to rain down on their gaming opponents.) I'll give you some real examples, just in case you are confused.
I think we need to have a talk about urgent and important. Some things are urgent. Some things are important, and some things are both. That last category is very, very small, however and would include things like a woman in labor or incoming rocket fire or there is a tornado coming fast and you need to get underground. Everything else is usually one or the other, but not both. (Unless you are a teenage girl or a toddler to whom everything is important and urgent. Teenage boys, I understand, find nothing urgent, not even rocket fire, unless it is on a video screen and they are causing it to rain down on their gaming opponents.) I'll give you some real examples, just in case you are confused.
- One of your posts overseas has made a bad decision and wants you to fix it before it gets any worse. Now, this might be quite urgent to the post, but if it wasn't important enough to warrant a good decision the first time, why are they so on fire about it now?
- Your child has a project due tomorrow and needed poster board a week ago but forgot to tell you. Now it's 10pm and you have to find some pronto. Yes, this is urgent, but I'm going to ask the child the same question of importance as number 1. If it was important, shouldn't you have told me about it a lot sooner?
- Your child needs a pie for the bake sale tomorrow. Nope. Neither urgent nor important. If she wants a pie, she can buy one at the grocery store across the street from the school. Go early so you have time to drop it off before class starts.
- Your husband is almost blown up by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Important. Extremely important, but no longer urgent because by the time you hear about it, it's all over. However, finding a place to sob about the whole thing in private is very urgent.
- Your child needs new shoes for the Homecoming dance. I'm going to go with both urgent and important because, they are shoes! And if you know me, you know I am only joking a little bit. This is why I have a VIP account with Zappos.
- Your toddler needs a bathroom. Really urgent and super important. Run. Now! Why are you wasting time reading my blog? You only have seconds to make it! (I have to say I'm so very glad those days are over for us.)
You know what is not better than a brownie? Being hit by a 30 ton boulder. This boulder, to be exact.
The man who was hit was working on a road crew near Flagstaff, AZ when the boulder ran down the mountain and jumped him. OK, boulders don't run, they roll, but still, doesn't it seem like it was out to get him? Poor guy. He's in the hospital, but hopefully OK. I hope he's learned his lesson not to anger any big rocks. Seriously bad luck that one.
I was in Flagstaff, AZ for college when a tree fell and hit me in the head. It was a smallish tree but it brought with it a nasty concussion. What's with nature in Flagstaff?!
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