Grab a cuppa and a comfy chair, and let’s chat a while!
When I was six, my family was driving on an interstate highway late at night. Streaks of headlights and taillights painted the dark. For the first time, I truly realized that each of those cars held people – people living their lives, lives as important to them as mine was to me.
I wanted to see what those lives were, and to share my own…
Here, each Monday, I strive to reach that understanding through offering ideas and tidbits from my life, …won’t you settle in for a while, and share something of yours?
M*A*S*H is one of my favorite shows, and one of the constants of its first several years was Maxwell Q Klinger’s Big Idea. He wanted a Section 8 Discharge – to get out of the Army he’d never chosen to be in.
Now, the thing about Klinger is that he gave himself wholly to his Big Idea. When one thing didn’t work, he came up with another, and another, and another…it didn’t matter whether the idea was feasible – he gave all he had to the current scheme.
Corporal Klinger. Photo via Wikipedia Commons.
He pursued that goal relentlessly, and often hilariously:
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He made a hang glider
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tried voodoo
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sat on a flagpole
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wore a fur coat and rubber suit in a heat wave
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dressed only in women’s clothes
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pretended to be a murderer;
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a dead body;
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that he had an invisible camel;
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amnesia;
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that he was pregnant;
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and that he was going to immolate himself.
Once, he decided to eat a Jeep. And, being Klinger, when he decided to eat a Jeep, he went at it all the way. He set up a picnic, with oil dipping sauce, and assorted parts laid out on a red gingham tablecloth, and then he sat in the motor pool, windshield wiper in hand…
And then he started to chow down.
Okay, so maybe eating a Jeep wasn’t the best idea….or maybe, trying to eat so much of it, all at once, got in the way. Klinger ended up with a bellyful of trouble – and a stint in post-op.
Hoping to get closer to Toledo. Photo via Wikipedia Commons.
But still, he had a big Idea. He was still recovering when he kissed a Navy Admiral on the lips, and, when that didn’t work, he tried again, and again, and again…
Klinger worked as hard at reaching his goal as he did at his duties. As soon as the wounded began to roll in, Klinger would drop the current ploy, and get to work, until he wasn’t needed – and then, he was right back to his Big Idea.
I’m thinking that maybe I can take a lesson or two from Klinger.
How I approach our largest, wildest dreams – whether I even allow myself to have a large and wild dream, to begin with – might have something to do with my willingness to embrace it, strive toward it, give the time and energy needed to allow my imagination and energy to flow toward achieving it.
Am I willing to dedicate myself to my dreams, embrace them, know that I am worthy of having and achieving them?
It also may have a lot to do with whether I realize when I am gobbling too much, too fast, like Klinger with the Jeep.
Sometimes I get a Big Idea in my head, and overwhelm myself with how big, wonderful, and scary it is. I feel like maybe these are things that only happen for other people, and not me. I talk myself out of trying, because I might not be up to the task.
Other times, I dive into those plans so fast and hard that everything else disappears, and I try to devour that entire Jeep in one ravenous bite. That way lies exhaustion, guilt, and a bellyful of burnout as painful as Klinger’s automobile feast.
When I have a Big Dream, can I be as dedicated, fearless, and inventive as Klinger?
Sometimes, can I also slow down, look at the goal, and do just a little something to move forward, while tending to the rest of life, rather than ending up overwhelmed and doubled over around too much Jeep, all at once, unable to do anything at all.
I’m going to try to embrace my Big Ideas, and not to try to gobble the Jeep all in one bite, but instead to spread it out on the picnic blanket – and then savor each bite fully, in a balanced meal.
How about you? Have you ever shied away from a Big Idea, because it was scary, or you felt somehow unworthy of it? Have you ever given yourself over, trying to get there in one giant leap? Have you found a workable balance between the two?
Want to join the conversation? Drop your comment in the receptacle, and help yourself to another cuppa, and maybe a cookie!
Taking his Big Idea – and his duty – seriously. Photo via Wikipedia Commons.
