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The view from my office
windows is not the greatest. One set of windows faces the wall on the
backside of the bank, and the others face the windows of the apartments
above Classic Creations.
This does
not mean, however, that I am not exposed to the sights of nature.
Every morning when I
arrive at the office, I have to tear down a spider web that hangs across
the door. Every day, I tear down the web, and every morning it has been
rebuilt. This spider (or combination of spiders), whom I have named
George,
and I have gone through this each warm season for three years. He never
gives up.
Recently, a new
development has arisen at the back windows. The problem began when my
radio reception went kaput. The reception was never that good, so I
never gave it much thought . . . until the antenna wire began flicking
back and forth past the window.
“What the . . .?”
At first, I
feared the wire had been caught in the central air unit, but the yanking
was not consistent or strong, and curiosity got the best of me. I
cleared off the table by the window, opened the glass and stuck my head
out.
At the other end of the
wire, about nine feet away, was a pigeon trying to pull the wire into
her nesting area.
“That’s not good,” I
thought, and pulled the wire back, winding it up and hanging it on the
window where it exits the building.
The next day, she had it
unraveled, and was yanking on it again. She tugs on it, gets it to the
nest, and when she lets go, it falls back to the roof again. She flies
down to grab it, and tries again.
It has been three days
now, and she has not given up.
Tear down a
beaver dam, and they will simply begin building again. Dismantle a
bird’s nest or wasp’s nest, and they begin all over.
Ever
encounter a bird that sees its reflection in your window? He will beat
himself to death trying to beat himself (thinking it is another bird) to
death.
I find it interesting
that animals are not daunted by failure. I guess humans are the only
ones who have the option to quit, give in, move on--most likely because
it is our emotions that lead us to these decisions.
For animals,
it is a matter of survival to try and try the same thing again. For
humans, it is a choice. We can choose to keep doing things the same way,
and we can choose to change our approach, our methods, our means. We can
choose to try again, and we can choose to give up. We have the ability
to adapt.
The thing
that makes us human is our ability to learn from failure. That is what
makes us an intelligent species.
I hope that
none of Grantsville’s council members gives up. I hope that our mayor
and recorder have the tenacity of
George
the spider. But, the time has also come to stop making the same mistakes
that have been made in the past. Hiring practices, parking tickets,
radar regulations--all these processes have established procedures and
rules which must be followed.
Let’s just
follow them, shall we?
If we don’t
learn from past failures, we’re nothing more than a silly pigeon,
tugging on a wire that won’t go. And sooner or later, someone’s going to
yank on the other end.
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