Nutty Professor

Halfway through today’s marketing lesson (coincidentally, after watching several Energizer commercials), my professor’s presentation controller ran out of power.

Frustrated after several failed tries to work the device, he said, “This thing [the controller] has a built-in indicator, and it says that the battery is… zero.”

Then he muttered under his breath, “You know, there’s a trick for this.”

So in the middle of the class, he took out the battery and threw them on the floor. Then, he squatted down at the center of the seminar room and threw the battery on the floor repeatedly.

Satisfied with his ingenious trick, he replaced the battery, “Hah.. and now…”, *click click click*, “it’s still not working.”

What do I have to offer?

There are those periods of self-doubt, when you can’t help but wonder what you’re good for and where you fit in the grander scheme of things. It comes after a failure in a great test between ambitions and competence. The time when you wonder not how to answer the above question, but rather, whether there is an answer in the first place.

This is not the time for the instinctive answer, “but you’re good at this and that; better than so and so” – just because there are people worse off doesn’t make me good. It is also not the time for the convenient answer, “there’s a time and place for everyone” – but it’s just never here and now, right? And don’t even get me started on “God has plans for you.”

I can understand why people give such answers (I’m guilty of it too). After all, it’s the expected answer that makes no progress and leaves no damage.

But those are never the answer I am looking for, though I can’t pin-point exactly what we’re all hoping to hear. There could be many, one for each person in each situation, or none at all.

Trained individuals (best at missing the point) would probably have advised me to throw the ball to the other side of the court – what do you need?