Having only a handful (one hand up) of pictures of me as a child, I find joint duty and joy taking record of my children’s happenings.
Just recently, I was recording one of my son’s wrestling matches. He had his teammates on the side watching, most of whom younger than he.
Weird as I find myself to be, whenever wrestling gets a little bit of a squabble, I just continue to record. (I don’t know what makes me feel repellent of any harm, but I recall several times in life where I just don’t move when I should.)
My son’s match started to work toward our way and as the match headed our direction, I automatically found my freed arm to shield the younger wrestlers next to me.
Evidently still determined to be recording, I was able to create a forewarning barrier for the kids beside me with one arm while the other stayed immobile at its position. (Funny thing is, the children sat there unmoved and unconcerned as I have similarly reacted to such cases.)
The way I saw it, while my son was giving his 100 on the mat, so were his supportive teammates on the side, neither worried about potential collisions.
I, on the other hand, while giving my 100 to record, was giving another 100 to make sure children next to me would be shielded from harm.
100 + 100 = 200
In a math meeting, someone whom I respectfully listen to with respect for how she mathematically works out problems, just happened to share her thoughts of what I have for quite some time quietly found as an interesting conundrum, the 100 percent notion.
Her expressed and well-received claim was how hearing someone say they are doing more than 100 percent just cannot be true. One hundred percent is all there is as it suggests a whole, a completion.
Quietly, as I already know for this to have conjured similar debates in my head, she opened up a familiar, but not new thought, “Are you sure about that?”
I, of course, decided to have the debate in my own head (like an express train that somehow had to manage a quick start to finish so I could refocus on the table discussions continuing to take place around me).
As I was privately already working out my own debate session in my head, you should envision me fixated on my colleague’s lips, just continuing to listen to her position.
It was like I was back in the same room with Papa and Mama again arguing their own points of view of life as I would just sit there, immersed in all parts of thoughts flailing in the air for me to catch and process (with that express train going on in my head about my own thoughts while trying to listen at the same time).
This person was not wrong in her mathematical stance. When you give 100 percent, you are giving essentially, well, everything.
Here is where I shut up from the world because, as again, I have been told, I always try and think good of everything. However, as I have also noted about me, I also take no consideration to not offend, many times speaking my mind, directly stating my thoughts without hesitation.
Sometimes I am successful at refraining; thankfully this was one of those times.
If I had opened up my mouth on how my mind actually sees it, I would have only seemed to argumentatively demean or condescend- there is no good in that approach. I have succeeded in inadvertently taking such curt mannerisms- several times.
Nodding or just merely focusing on the person talking has been good training for me.
The challenge is listening to others while listening to yourself (more like, selves) at the same time.
Surely, 100% is whole, complete. And yet, hear me think out loud here.
If we were all to suggest we are giving everything we’ve got, hence, 100%, we are all true in our statement for who’s to say we aren’t. However, I must invite Sir Isaac Newton to this thought process to stop and ponder on this further.
The second law in physics suggests, F = ma. Essentially, force equals mass times acceleration.
All would suggest 100 percent of themselves. Would they not? Is not force, mass, and acceleration complete energies within themselves? If not, how, for instance, does 2 x 3 equal 6?
2 is a whole number. 3 is a whole number. So is 6. Yes? Even 1, yes?
Hence, 100 x 1 = 100; 100 x 2 = 200. You get the idea there.
In percentage, you suggest? Well, 100% = 100/100 which goes back to 1; 200/100 goes back to 2.
A well known warehouse sells multiple pumpkin pies around every Thanksgiving. One whole pie in my cart. Six whole pies in someone else’s cart.
If I have 100% of a pie in my cart, how many would you suggest that other person with six has in theirs? 100%, you (still) say?
Really. Really?
The oppositions of the mind that happen before your very lips moving.
To survive my own thoughts all my life, in able to sleep, because sleep is a must, I peaceably agree to disagree. (With the world, that is. Sadly, your own mind will never cease until it receives satisfactory concurrence.)
Hence, the world silences you with so many parking lot talks- in your head.
You can’t argue perspective. It is the physiological piece of us. Heart, mind, body, and spirit.
The left hand does what the right hand does not know is doing at times. As my left hand was protecting children from harm’s way, my right hand remained its duty to record my child’s match. Both sides were doing 100.
Per cent? Per side? Yes. Because how else could I suggest two to equal one?
So, when your child tells me they are doing 150% because their classmate is doing only 50%, I just want you to know in advance, my mind completely understands them.
However, if it was to be your child to say that doesn’t make sense, be rest assured, I understand that one, too.
Papa and Mama both live in my head.
They’ve expressed in more ways than one who is doing more to where I’ve carried that same debate to my own, over 30 years, with my husband.
You stay long enough in that room of debate, you’ll eventually hear one say they are giving it all they’ve got. And then, there’s the other that will suggest they are carrying more than their share.
Wait. How can you add part of someone’s 100 to yours? Dare ask Mama or Papa that. When my husband makes that statement, I just believe him.
(I didn’t say, agree, with him. Sometimes.)
Perspective theory. If what you say cannot be fully proven wrong, then, you are right.
One day I’ll write about this, too. My mind is not finished listening to the world while quietly, not so quietly, debating inside just yet.
