Two weeks ago, I went to my Rotary meeting, just like I do virtually every Friday morning, thinking that things were normal. In the blink of an eye, it became apparent that things were different. What happened? We started the meeting just like we always do with the ringing of a bell. Everyone stood and as the president asked us to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, hands were raised to hearts in the way that we have all done for the bulk of our lives. As the first word came out of our collective mouth, it happened ... NO FLAG! Now what should we do? Well, as indicated by the silence, we had absolutely no idea. Fortunately, the president had the presence of mind to tell us that we would go ahead and recite the Pledge without a flag. We did just fine after that.
Like many things, this was really no big deal, but my mind became fascinated by how programed we really are in our daily lives. Want proof? When you get dressed in the morning, which sock do you put on first? When you brush your teeth, do you brush the left or the right side first? When you answer the phone, are the words out of your mouth typically the same? If you can easily answer these questions, you are programmed. These are all examples, and there are thousands more, of the things we have come to do as habit.
As we look across our world on a daily basis, I think this type of behavior is more common than we really think, or even recognize. When I was at Drake, we had a situation that really pointed this out to me. One of the years I was a Resident Assistant, we had two incoming freshman women who were from two regions of the world. Their countries were sworn enemies. This would have been the equivalent of having members of both the Hatfield and the McCoy families living under the same roof. Early on, tensions were really high. No one knew exactly how this should be handled. And then, over time, an amazing thing happened. Because of the environment that our hall provided, these two women got to know each other, and at some level even came to understand each other. Because there had been such strong emotion around it at the beginning, I think they actually listened to each other more than they would have in a regular situation. Then, as time passed, they became friends, and in the end, they really had no sense for why their families and countries despised each other so much. They found the way to overcome the programming that had happened with them and the generations that had come before them. It was wonderful to watch this happen as an outsider.
I was raised in what I consider a special family. Those that know us might just laugh at that statement. My father was a polio victim as a child and walked with a cane his entire life. Many of those who were around him considered it a handicap, or referred to him as a "cripple," but I was fortunate enough to have this help me in the way I look at people. I was programmed differently than most. I have never been enamored with the current trend or programming the world wanted to press upon me. I have always been this way. I am sure there are times when it has frustrated the dickens out of my family when as they wanted to follow the more popular route and I wasn't willing to be swayed. But I look with pride, at the decisions that Andrew and Megan have made regarding friends and who they would support. Some of the programming that came to me from the way I grew up has moved on to my children, and I hope that serves them well.
I realize that with more years, I have gotten a bit "crustier." I find that it is much easier to allow the world's programming come to the top and cause me to judge people and situations in specific ways without looking at the entire picture. As I stood there, saying the Pledge of Allegiance without a flag, I thought about all of the assumptions I allow to come to bear and all of the times that I think about people in a certain way for an unknown reason. I thought back to the mid 70's when I watched two women from around the world get to know each other as people, not as members of two different societies. As we finished the words together two weeks ago, I found myself taking a different pledge: to renew the fight against things that attempt to program me in ways I don't necessarily approve. All of this happened in the course of a minute or two on one single morning with a group of rather confused business men.
So, tomorrow just to prove that I am working on the things that I am talking about, I will put on my right sock first.
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