...I become more of a fan. I'm proud we both live in the Pacific Northwest as if that actually means anything.
This was a brilliant, illustrative post and I dig your writing style. Chicory and the rest of us were lucky to read it.
I wish I could get AW to call me Hercules. Or Stallion... Stallion would work too. What about Thor? I could handle Thor. I don't know that I could crush rocks, but I can open things, lift heavy objects, and fix **** too. Does that get me in the Hercules club?
Take what you want and leave the rest.
Cyranoak
Originally Posted by
anvilhead 
chicory....often helplessness can become a modus operandi....why? because it often works! i'll flounder and flail around here long enough getting absolutely nowhere and somebody will be along shortly to bail me out. i'll lose stuff, misplace stuff, forget stuff, and the caped crusader will swoop in and "rescue" me. i'll appear to not have a clue on how to manage my own affairs, and somebody else will step in and manage them for me.
that's a hard habit to break.....on both sides!!!
i don't know if it helps but maybe think of it like the Pickle Jar. if my husband is around, and if after a twist attempt or two i can't OPEN the pickle jar, i simply find him, hand him the jar, and Hercules turns the lid til it makes that little pop when the seal is broken and hands it back to me. usually without taking his eyes off the game, or ESPN or whatever he's watching on TV.
now if he is NOT there...i have some choices to make:
1) take the handle end of the butter knife and tap around the edge
2) gently whack the lid on the counter
3) grunt, groan, cuss and try to get the damn thing open
4) try my left hand
5) skip the pickles
if you were to be a fly on the wall watching me wrestle with the pickle jar, you'd very much want to try and HELP me. i don't have the proper hand strength or grip or whatever. however, if you leave me be, chances are up the 90th percentile that i will succeed!!! it just won't look super graceful!!! and certainly not as easy as Hercules makes it look! (i swear the man can crush cement with his hands).
maybe the way your son does things won't LOOK like he's being very successful, and won't look at all the way it would if YOU did it. but see it's not your stuff. it's HIS stuff and it will have his special modus operandi stamped on it.