How can something seemingly simple be so complicated? Have you ever pondered the complexity of shoe laces? Do you remember learning to tie your shoe laces?
I remember my dad teaching me to tie my shoe laces when I was in kindergarten. These were the days before slip-ons and velcros. I remember that I was bribed with a can of 7-up for learning to tie my shoe laces.
I believe the incident occurred when I came home with my first report card. It was a cute one....Peanuts characters displaying the various tasks one must know to pass kindergarten. One of the tasks was "I can tie my shoe laces." I had a "U". Unacceptable. Unaccomplished. Utter failure. ugh.
So the lesson began. We sat on the living room floor toe to toe. Dad kept showing me over and over and having me try over and over until I finally got it. But guess what. I learned to do more than tie my shoe laces. I learned to tie them backwards!! Since I was facing my dad and not sitting by his side, I learned the reverse image method to tie shoe laces!!
When my sister Jean was in high school, one of her class projects was to document the steps to do a simple task. This was in preparation for working with handicapped children and understanding the complexity of simple things. She decided to document the steps to tie a shoe lace. I don't remember all the details of each step, but I do remember that there were 21 steps!! 21 steps to tie your shoe lace!! Maybe it's not so simple after all.
I remember at some point in life being frustrated with shoe laces that kept coming untied. So I learned to take the two "bows" and tie them in a knot to "double knot" my shoe laces. The good thing was, my laces did not come untied. The bad thing was, my laces did not come untied...easily. Struggling to undo those double knots was a task.
When I was surviving the year of the ankle in 2000, I had to wear a walking boot cast for about a month. While at The Brace Center for the fitting, the specialist showed me how to tie a double knot that untied with a simple pull of the lace. WOW! Maybe a few more steps than the regular double knot but sooooo much easier to untie.
Nowadays, we have velcro to replace shoe laces (and buckles, too). Convenience. Time-saving. Less annoyance.
The other day the various shoe lace stories congregated at once in my thoughts. It was interesting. I keep thinking there should be some spiritual application here but haven't come up with it yet.
But I did think of educational applications. One, sometimes you need to be side by side to teach someone so they can see your viewpoint...and you can see their's. Two, sometimes when teaching something to someone, they have trouble understanding steps 1, 2, and 3. Even if you understand steps 1, 2, and 3, they may need the steps broken down further to understand: steps 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, etc.
Just some random thoughts about shoe laces.
I remember my dad teaching me to tie my shoe laces when I was in kindergarten. These were the days before slip-ons and velcros. I remember that I was bribed with a can of 7-up for learning to tie my shoe laces.
I believe the incident occurred when I came home with my first report card. It was a cute one....Peanuts characters displaying the various tasks one must know to pass kindergarten. One of the tasks was "I can tie my shoe laces." I had a "U". Unacceptable. Unaccomplished. Utter failure. ugh.
So the lesson began. We sat on the living room floor toe to toe. Dad kept showing me over and over and having me try over and over until I finally got it. But guess what. I learned to do more than tie my shoe laces. I learned to tie them backwards!! Since I was facing my dad and not sitting by his side, I learned the reverse image method to tie shoe laces!!
When my sister Jean was in high school, one of her class projects was to document the steps to do a simple task. This was in preparation for working with handicapped children and understanding the complexity of simple things. She decided to document the steps to tie a shoe lace. I don't remember all the details of each step, but I do remember that there were 21 steps!! 21 steps to tie your shoe lace!! Maybe it's not so simple after all.
I remember at some point in life being frustrated with shoe laces that kept coming untied. So I learned to take the two "bows" and tie them in a knot to "double knot" my shoe laces. The good thing was, my laces did not come untied. The bad thing was, my laces did not come untied...easily. Struggling to undo those double knots was a task.
When I was surviving the year of the ankle in 2000, I had to wear a walking boot cast for about a month. While at The Brace Center for the fitting, the specialist showed me how to tie a double knot that untied with a simple pull of the lace. WOW! Maybe a few more steps than the regular double knot but sooooo much easier to untie.
Nowadays, we have velcro to replace shoe laces (and buckles, too). Convenience. Time-saving. Less annoyance.
The other day the various shoe lace stories congregated at once in my thoughts. It was interesting. I keep thinking there should be some spiritual application here but haven't come up with it yet.
But I did think of educational applications. One, sometimes you need to be side by side to teach someone so they can see your viewpoint...and you can see their's. Two, sometimes when teaching something to someone, they have trouble understanding steps 1, 2, and 3. Even if you understand steps 1, 2, and 3, they may need the steps broken down further to understand: steps 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, 2B, 2C, 3A, 3B, 3C, etc.
Just some random thoughts about shoe laces.
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