120530
PURITY
by Ralph Liebing, RA, CSI, CDT,
Cincinnati, OH
Are you a person so strictly disciplined that you have never-- NEVER!varied or strayed from any instructions you were given?
Have you never once violated the speed limit, even when passing another cat?
Have you never, even just under your breath issued an oath?
Well, we wont delve further into your pristine character, but to say that we all seem to admire purity, but like perfection, never seem to acquire it.
We humans are jumpers! We jump at the thought of acquiring wealth [you do play the lottery, dont you?] We jump at the chance to outdo, or one-up any one, to our advantage. But our truly Olympic jumping is to conclusions.
You see, there is, in our minds, only one true right in the worldand that is our idea of right! No onesave no oneis righter than we are. We ignore the close association of perfection in this, but, hey, right is right! Know what I mean?
In this no one has any better ideas than we do, on an individual basis. Without thinking or analyzing, we create correctness, rightness, and unassailable propriety-- we [that is, each of us] are good!
While that may be true, the problem in this is that we tend also to be inertial-- OK, mired in ourselves, our thoughts, our perceptions of right. Everyone else is elsewhere [mired in their silly, peculiar way!] Now, friends, this tends to make us both myopic and stubborn. And in turn, we hate change!
With our superior jumping ability, whenever someone comes up with even a simple, unrefined possibility of change, we immediately jump on them with the jumped-to conclusion that the idea is wrong, bad, unneeded, stupid, worthless, ill-conceived, idiotic, or maybe really just sort of---- well, irritating.
With little or no detail discussion or explanation of the proposal, we jump to the position, and become firmly entrenched in an absolute defensive posture. We dont like that idea-- because, you know why? Because we [as an individual] did not think of it? See how we work?
Now to show the depth of fallacy in our attitude, let us assume that the proposed change is, or is part of a program, that involves voluntary participation-- i.e., you dont have to participate to the nth degree or not even at all! There will be no policing, investigation, scourging or stigmatizing of what you do with this change, how you implement it, how you manipulate or modify it, or how you adjust it to your particular needs or situation. Or you may just say, the heck with it, and move on in your life [even if your colleagues do participate in the change].
How silly can we be? Well, believe it or not, there can be purity in silliness!
I dont think I want to go there. So maybe, as much as it goes against my grain, I better loosen up, be a smidge more tolerant, and see what all this change involves-- before I summarily dismiss it!
Im no Crusader, but wont you join this direction and cut the good folks on the Task Force some slack-- theyre smart; their ideas are good, even if they are not exactly like yours. Lets let them work out the kinks and make their presentation and explanation.
Then those who choose to BOO can, and those who choose to seek understanding, accept the changes and work them into their own programs can do that. After all, these are volunteers volunteering new voluntary formats which can be utilized on a voluntary basis without involuntary confinement or stigmatizing!
Pure is pure! Right is right! Fair is fair-- and purer and righter!!!
A place to start-- CSI takes on basic contract documents education for whole construction industry! [Good answer, Vanna!]