A little story about the need to let go sometimes
Transcript of this video:
Many years ago I was persuaded to have a go at water skiing, somewhat against my better judgment because I’ve never really been a very sporting kind of character.
And I remember the main challenge was getting out of the water. There I was bobbing around in the water in my life vest, holding the bar. And the speedboat pulls away very fast so you’re yanked pretty hard.
And I was being told by my trainers, “you have to hold onto the bar.” So I gripped the bar tight and eventually I did succeed in getting up out of the water for perhaps half a second before falling flat on my face.
And I found myself prostrate in the water being pulled at great speed through the water, clinging on very tight to the bar, cursing the boat for not stopping quickly enough.
Of course, speedboats don’t have brakes and it wasn’t gonna stop very quickly. And it was several seconds of buffeting in this river estuary before I realized I should just let go of the bar.
And I think of that story a lot when I find myself or see my fellow humans struggling with issues, where I think it’s very easy to get attached to a goal, a worldview, an ideology, a way of doing things.
And when it’s not working and we’re under stress, finding ourselves clinging ever more tightly to the bar. When very often the most humane and more creative thing to do would be to find a way to be safe enough to let go of the bar.
Photo by Matej Vittek on Unsplash
