Osler's Razor

[click on the photo to enlarge it]

Today's Sunday Reflection is coming late in the day, as I just got home from the round-up at a friend's ranch. It was one of two experiences I had this week where I was suddenly the dumbest person in the room, thrust into the midsts of professionals practicing a craft very different than my own.

First, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I went to read-throughs for our performance of The Voysey Inheritance on November 3. Nearly all of the other participants are professional actors, and I loved to observe the way they approached the story and the characters. There was a professionalism to it which I found striking. I was the novice in the room, and it was clear to me, perhaps for the first time, what art there is to acting when it is done well.

Then, today, I went out for the round-up. Cowboys came in to gather up the cows, bring them in to a corral, then vaccinate them and separate the calves from their mothers. It was fascinating to watch this process from within, and see the way these professionals do their work. They know what the cows respond to, and made complex things seem easy-- the mark of the professional in any vocation.

In both settings, I was humbled. I did not know what to do, where to stand or sit, what was about to happen. I was the one present who knew the least about that craft, and everyone knew it.

It was great.

That humble moment is so important for each of us, and when I (surprisingly often) find it, I revel in it. I am quiet in those times, and listen far more than I talk. I let myself be impressed with those who have skills I don't, and recognize what those skills bring to my life and the greater society. Each time, I leave that setting with a certain awe and gentleness, and my own importance seems lessened. And, somehow, always, I come back to God in those moments, because humility is at the heart of that relationship, and that is a gift I have been given today.