My way, or the highway!
Life got easier when I learned this lesson. Many years ago I was teaching a crown molding class at one of the big box stores explaining how to cut those tricky miter joints for both inside and outside corners. A little old grandmother taught me a very important life lesson. I explained to the class that in order to get an accurate cut one needed to place the molding on the miter saw “upside down and backwards”. Otherwise, it wouldn’t work.
Here is a conversation that followed between a sweet little old gray–haired grandmother and a very arrogant instructor (me):
Grandma said in a humble and meek voice “I don’t do it that way.”
Disbelieving instructor: “Just how do you do it?”
Humble Grandma: “I place the crown molding on the saw just like it’s going on the wall and then make the cut. That way there is no confusion.”
Arrogant instructor: “You have to do it the other way otherwise in won’t work.”
Grandma’s adamant instructive grandmotherly response, “Sony, I’ve been doing it that way or 38 years! It works every time.”
I think that is when I finally understood deep down the meaning of that old phrase “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” That day I added a new phrase to my vocabulary; “Here is the way most folks would do this. . .” There are exceptions to every rule so my advice, especially in the turning world, is that if it’s working well for you keep doing it that way. If you are having trouble, you might consider doing it my way. Even I do the same thing five or six different ways from time to time, and they all work pretty well.
When you are watching someone else execute a particular technique, use a tool in a certain way, possibly very different than the way you do it, that doesn’t mean that they are doing it wrong. It means they are doing it differently. When you take a class and the instructor “corrects you” take it in stride and try to do it their way, you might learn something. What you could learn is that one of you, possibly you, is better at that particular operation than the other one is.
Humility is a hard lesson, something which often has to be learned all too frequently. Wisdom and Understanding are the keys. I wish I had learned this much sooner.
Proverbs 4:6–7 Message Bible
6 Never walk away from Wisdom – she guards your life; love her – she keeps her eye on you. 7 Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding!
Because “Wherever you go, there you are!”
