Heavy Lifting and the Little Things

Too many people volunteer to carry the stool when it’s time to move the piano

The hearty and unanimous “Amen” roared from the pews as the preacher launched his Sunday sermon with the piano mover quote.  More fortune cookie than scripture, it still rings true.  Curses to the stool carriers.  And, it’s not just the work shirkers:  way too many people complain about how it’s being moved, where it’s being moved and that it needs tuning.  Too many lightweights and whiners. Amen!

The vivid illustration received an uproarious response, but the congregation missed the point in the same way as last Sunday and the week before.  What we hear, so eagerly approve, and repeat with impunity is that those lightweights do as little as they can get away with and that those whiners complain about the way it is rather than work for a solution.

It is our self-righteous nature to see the lesson as it relates to others and join in the condemnation.  It happens every Sunday in nearly every pew in every church in the world.  I am treading on thin ice here because there is nothing more self-righteous than the sermon condemning self-righteousness, but two simple lessons arise from the piano mover quote. 

Lesson 1:  It’s me.  I am the stool carrier.  I am the slacker.  I am the whiner.  And, guess what.  So are you.  To hammer this point home, rephrase the quote.

I too often volunteer to carry the stool when it’s time to move the piano

Now, start carrying pianos.

Lesson 2: The little things matter. Someone needs to carry the stool; someone needs to carry the sheet music; and, it’s not always clear whether your assignment is the heavy lifting, insignificant, or intricate detail.  Recently, an old local activist told the story of a small restaurant in his suburban community about twenty years ago.  In those days, he spent much of his time advocating for the community but never dined at the restaurant even though he had heard rave reviews.  One day, the restaurant closed, and an adult video store opened in its place.  He still blames himself for the loss of that restaurant.  He was so busy carrying what he considered pianos that he failed in the most basic and fundamental way.

We all have assignments. Small task or large, we all can do more.  It’s about time we did.

On an unrelated or perhaps related note – next month, I will start my stint as a middle school volleyball coach in Metro Nashville Public Schools.  I can’t wait to be a part of the Jere Baxter Middle Prep team! 

Pulling it Together? Again!

“I had a preconceived notion once. But it turned out to be something that I already thought.”  -Ernest P. Worrell

The Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education is searching for a new Director of Schools – the position most school districts call Superintendent.  What do you think of the school board? Last week, conventional wisdom and chronic cynicism combined for a chorus of naysaying calls for delay. No one believed the school board can pull it together long enough to make the hire.

          I attended last week’s “emergency” board meeting that reconsidered the interim director to show my support for whatever the Board decided on that issue and joked that Ringling Brothers sent me to take notes on their competition.  I left that meeting troubled, but a sense of déjà vu gave me hope the Board would step up, take responsibility and do its job. 

Flashback: Seven or eight years ago, amid the search for a Director of Schools and a call to rid the world of the Nashville School Board, the members looked around the table at a retreat and committed to pull it together.  After the slate of finalists was deemed underwhelming by local pundits, politicians and media, the Mayor met individually with each Board member to persuade the Board to call off the search and wait for a year of failure so he could name the Director.  The Board had already decided to do its job and not allow any special interest to usurp its responsibility.  We rejected his suggestion that the school system plan a year of failure because – as a twist on the old saying goes – planning to fail is planning to fail.  No matter your opinion of that school board, former Director of Schools Jesse Register, or public education in general, you should recognize that the Board’s hiring of Dr. Register saved the school system and the school board from total annihilation.  

          That time on the Board is highlighted by this photo on the front page of the now defunct Nashville City Paper. 

How many hands do I have?  That’s right; I am a three-armed mutant with the innate ability to say “but on the other hand” one more time than most people.

          Welcome back to 2015, and the school board won the week!  Amid calls for delay, the School Board interviewed the finalists, accepting responsibility and displaying accountability that should be an example to every legislative body.  Whether they decide to hire one of these finalists, ask for more applicants, or to start school with an interim, we now know that this school board will do its job.  Are you comfortable with that?

Whether you’re comfortable with that or not, here is what you should do.  Call, email or otherwise contact your school board member (whether you live in Nashville or not and no matter what issue is presently before your school board) and express your sincere gratitude to them.  They hold the hardest and most important of all elected offices. Don’t express any opinion on any issue and don’t cite any vote or position taken by your school board member.  Don’t even have a reason.  Just say: “thank you.”