Point of Reference
Point of Reference
Just recently I was having a conversation with one of our school board members, Eric Hyche. He and his
wife had just gone on vacation to Utah and visited Arches National Park. He was sharing with me some of
his pictures from the trip. There was one set of pictures that I found fascinating. The pictures really had an
impact on me. So much so, I wanted to share them with you. So with his permission, I am going to take you
on a little trip to Utah and share some insights that were inspired by this amazing place!
The Arches in the park are majestic! One example, the Delicate Arch, shown below, is 46 ft high! You can
see Eric and his wife Angie at the base of the arch. Pretty spectacular, isn’t it?
The next photograph depicts the Double Arch. This geographic feature stands a whopping 104 feet high!
And the last arch that I want to share with you is another wonder in natural formations. How tall would you
imagine this third arch below to be? 50ft? 150ft? 76ft?
Click on this link to see how tall this arch
Your mind's eye played a trick on you! How did it do that? Answer: I did not give a reference point for it to
have perspective. Your mind's eye used what it had seen before to create a reference. In this case, it took
the information that it had and made the third arch much bigger than it was.
Let me give you something else to consider. If I were to lay out a 50 ft measuring tape on the ground and
assign that those 50 feet represent 5 years of our life (1825 days). How much of that measuring tape
would represent one week? The answer is 2.3 inches. Sometimes problems we face in a week can
ruin those 7 days, but when we put them in the context of 5 years the problem is not so large.
So now let us say that the 50 ft represents our entire life. How much is one year? If the average life
expectancy is 80 years, the distance on the tape measure for one year is 7.5 inches. We can attest to the
fact that sometimes we can have a challenging year. Some will definitely be glad to see 2020 come to an
end, but in the context of our entire life or career, this year is just 7.5 inches.
In the book “Lone Survivor,” the author Marcus Luttrell describes the Navy Seal training they went through
- some of the toughest individuals on the planet pushed to their limits. When someone had hit their breaking
point, they would ring a bell. The drill instructors would talk with the soldier and ask if they were sure they
wanted to quit; that the challenge was something they had been preparing for their entire career, and
some would change their mind and stay. What was interesting to note was that anyone who rang the bell
and stayed never made it to the end. The ones that made it to the end were the ones that were able to
stay in the moment. They developed the practice of talking to themselves instead of listening to themselves.
By this I mean, when their body would say I can't do this for another 3 weeks, they would say to themselves,
I can do this another 3 days. If their body would say I can't do this for another 3 days, they would tell themselves
that I can do this for another 3 hours. They stayed in the moment and focused on the fact that this is a period of time
and that in the context of their lives and of their careers - this is just a small segment.
I sometimes wonder if that is what is happening to us now. We are having difficulty establishing a point of
reference for what we are dealing with. I keep hearing the term “the new normal” and I think that we
project out too far and have a tendency to think, “I can't do this for the next 5 years!” I am not certain that
the road we have ahead is steeper than what we can imagine, or that the path is really as great of an
obstacle as we anticipate. What I ask is that we stay in the moment. Let us take this one year at a time,
one month at a time, one week at a time, one day at a time, one hour at a time. Individually it is
overwhelming, but a cord of three is not easily broken. What I am confident about is that as a cord of
three, a family, a tribe, we can handle any challenge TOGETHER. Faith and Fear are beliefs in a future
that has not happened yet. I choose faith not because I only trust the medical professionals that have
contributed to our reopening plan. I believe this because I have a point of reference.
Since May, we have had students in our buildings. Our School Age Child Care program and our Early
Childhood Learning Centers! Teachers working with students! While there have been some restrictions,
we have been able to see what the future could look like. I am not saying that these are exactly like what
classrooms are going to be in the coming weeks. There are many other factors that will shape our future.
However, this is a point of reference that lends to a better understanding of the shape and size, but
most importantly, to the particular needs of our community. I believe that you all are a point of reference
that lends to the quelling of the doubt, the worry, and the momentary discomfort. You are a group of
educators that can transform fear to hope: a reason to tussle with what is difficult for what is worthwhile.
Blessings to all in our journey ahead as “One Tribe”.
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