This has nothing to do with yarn-y goodness except in regards to why I’m not getting anything done. It popped into my head today because I am in enormous pain from aggravating an old injury that originated in my brief stint in the Navy and, in fact, ended my career. It’s this:
After I got hurt, I was still working out to the extent that I could. One afternoon I was on the recumbent bike and one of the Drill Instructors decided to come over and give me a talking to, which was a little unusual. You rarely heard those guys use their inside voices. Anyway, he paced around the bike and gave me a bit of a lecture, and the part of it that really, really stuck with me was when he said, “There’s a fine line between working hard and being stupid, and I trust you’ve figured out where that is now.”
That was ten years ago. And you know what? I’m not sure I know where that is now any better than I knew it then. I think I might be making the same mistake again. I need to ponder a bit. Because doing the equivalent of physically flunking out of OCS again would be stupid. And if a Gunnery Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps actually told me that, in an environment meant to push you past your perceived limits, then maybe, just maybe? I ought to consider acknowledging that just working harder isn’t always a good solution.
Something to think on, anyway.