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being wrong

Wrong or Right? A cautionary tale

February 13, 2017 by Sara Nolan

hands are right and wrong

Will You Get it Wrong?  If wrong was a flavor of gum, I'd have stuck it ABC style under my desk chair long ago, hoping nobody caught me.  I wouldn't want you to know it was ever in my mouth. But this week, wrong caught up with me. I have two colleagues at The TEAK Fellowship who would definitely win at Jeopardy.  They are the kinds of people who know the kinds of facts you'd find in toilet-side books. And me? Put on Jeopardy, even on my best day in my best thinking cap and with a high dose of caffeine in my blood, I would still lose by a wide margin. So when I went into said colleagues' office, and Ne whirled around to ask, "Can you name five countries that have four letters?" I said "Nope!" before I even fully heard his challenge. Ni leaned forward in her chair, "C'mon, you're not even going to try?" I had dizzy visions of failing geography tests in high school; of my art history teacher asking us to draw a free-form map of the United States and being able to come up with only NY, CA, and FL locations. "Nope!" I said, confidently. "Educator much?" asked Ne, who is always ribbing people just a little. I stood there, nailed. And stood there.  My mind was completely blank.  I probably couldn't have told you my zip code, my middle initial, the last 4 digits of my social. Mental snow fell. This was what it felt like in third grade when I was asked to do the 7's on the multiplication table. I remembered 7 and 49 and not much else.  Ears red. "Not even one?" Ni prodded. "Um...ok, Peru?" I tried. "Peru!" Ni said. "Yes!" "Ah....Mali?" I offered. OK, this wasn't so hard.  I knew some countries.  I felt my shoulders relax.  Now that I'd gotten two I needed to try for at least three, more than half the challenge met. "Mali!" Ne echoed, glad. "Bali!" I declared. Ne and Ni nodded in unison.  Wait, was I perhaps even GOOD at this?  I had passed the halfway mark.  Now it would be super-lame if I couldn't finish the list.  Continue Reading …

Filed Under: Integrity, Questions, State of Mind Tagged With: being wrong, humility, knowledge, questions

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