A Debt To Be Paid

A couple of Mondays ago, I had a Comp Day from school where I trade one of the days I work over the summer and don't get paid for a day during the school year where I do. I had the day off.

There had been a leak in my John for a couple of months. It came and went. Very slight in sound. I often would turn the water valve off when not using rather than address the underlying problem which I surmised was an aged stopper inside the tank. But, I wore the valve out to the point where it was stripped and wouldn't shut the water off anymore. So, I decided to try and fix it on the day off.

As is typical, I couldn't just replace the handle of the valve. I had to replace the whole valve unit that had different fittings. Job went from elementary to secondary immediately. I also planned to buy a replacement stopper which I should have done to start several months before. So, back from the hardware store I came.

After watching some YouTube videos, none of which quite capture entirely what I had going on, I got to work. YouTube videos are a wonderful resource but they can also mask the difficulty of a job. What looks easy on the screen often requires tools, dexterity, and knowledge, not so obvious. 

About two hours later, I gave up. The nut to the piping and the former valve apparatus wouldn't come off no matter what I did. I needed another and better wrench I thought. I decided to take a break before I broke something (the plumbing piping was strangely twisting rather than letting the nut go free). I called my buddy who was in from out of town. We had plans to convene later in the day for dinner at a favorite place in the city. He's handy.

When he came over, he surmised that when the original piping was installed, the home-builder had glued the nut onto the piping. Perhaps a short-cut and sloppy. The nut wasn't coming off. He had purchased at Home Depot and new turn off valve part plus a section of metal flexible piping. The only solution was to cut piping and attached old valve part out like a cancerous melanoma. I had pretty much came to the same conclusion but decided to wait for his expertise to show up.

I have tried to work on my weaknesses and being handy has never been a strength of mine. When I was born seven weeks premature back in 1963, most my right hemisphere visual field was mostly wiped out due to a lack of oxygen (I had double-pneumonia). Thus, I don't have anymore the neurological infrastructure to see objects in space and in three-dimensions. So, fixing things has always been hard. But, I have made progress under the assumption that just because I don't see depth and three-dimensional space, does not infer at all of course that it is not there. I have to trust that space exists and work through a problem with that assumption.

What was cool about the experience was my buddy made quick work with the fix and also had paid for all of the supplies. I have tried to experience grace by letting people bestow it upon me and not feel the need to reciprocate tit-for-tat quid pro quo. 

As usual I reflected on the larger lesson which are as follows:

- We all have different gifts. No one has all of the talents and tools necessary for everything. Yet, we shouldn't expect others to do for us what we can learn to do for ourselves. I had hit my limit with the recalcitrant pipe. I had made an effort, I had not succeeded. I needed help and then accepted it. It should make us humble that we are not godlike in everything.

- A good example is quite necessary for learning. Watching someone do it in person is much better than watching a video or reading directions. The ability to see the fix in action provides a lot more data. As it is said, lessons are better caught than taught.

- There are often back-end costs to expertise. In order to give something, it costs time, talent, and treasure. A lot of this can be hidden and thus not appreciated on the receiving end. Ignorance and assumption can create a lack of appreciation and gratitude. We take things for granted until they are gone, if ever. We may be so daft to not even know what we are missing.

One of the current laments is the death of expertise in our culture. And this is not some indictment of the well-deserved scorn that elites have brought on themselves. I am speaking of real expertise where the crowd goes "Says Who?" when the individual should actually be treated as an expert and listened to, not just dismissed by some B.S. tweet from a snarky know-it-all. That is easy.