Abraham Maslow said
in 1966,
"I suppose it is tempting,
if the only tool you
have is a hammer,
to treat everything
as if it were a nail."
I wanted to support the people/church I care about so I participated
in a 6 hour long ‘Healthy Congregation’ workshop. We’re experiencing natural
changes within our church due to our Pastor retiring. There have been some
problems so the thought and hope to reduce issues, conflict, and tension was to
invite a Pastor trained in leading Healthy Congregation seminars to our
church.
Well, Pastor Bill brought out his easel.
He presented such a ridiculously poor yet, charming example of
non-drawing ability that I was immediately engaged. He ‘illustrated’ an energy
field to discuss the larger concept of energy systems. He started with a
drawing something like this:
This is a field with
cows represented artfully as brown circles. (Pastor Bill chose dots, it was an
edgy but effective choice) Now, Pastor Bill explained, imagine if one of the
cows got too close to the black fence that is electrified. The red circle cow
would get a quick and significant jolt. The red circle that is the
electrifyingly jolted cow would react and the rest of the brown circle cows
would respond to the red circle cow’s reaction to being electrically jolted and
agitated.
Hence, Pastor Bill called the red cow, ‘The Agitated Cow’.
Here’s when I got stuck in my inner amusement. I was so
internally delighted by the words, agitated cow, as well as the sheer volume of
images that sprang into my mind that I chortled inwardly for quite a while. Thankfully,
I had a friend who knows of my ‘condition’ sitting next to me so that I could
share a little of my inner amusement. (I think I could have easily exploded).
In 20 years of working with at-risk children and their
families, in school systems, non-profits, counseling/intervention services, with
children and adults with mental illnesses, I am consistently in an agitated
energy field somewhere. So, this information wasn’t new, but boy howdy it was
delightful.
How many times did I myself, represent that agitated cow in the
flow of images? Many times. And those that have agitated my field were also
part of that inner flipbook of mental pictures.
This naturally led me to the
peak of my funny, the need for name tags reading,
“The role of agitated cow will now be
played by……”
In fact, a t-shirt reading,
‘Agitated Cow’ is now a must-make for myself.
I would have no shame in wearing
such a shirt because it represents the base truth of who we are. We are a
system of relationships. We are an interwoven connection of energy. What we
allow to happen within us will be what happens to others around us.
It seems that quite a lot of us don’t have the right tools and/or skills to
manage, absorb, be aware of, process, etc… conflict, agitation, frustration,
fear, blame, anger, and offense. The list is as long as we are in population. We
will be agitated. Some people are not aware of it, some people only know how to
spread it, some people try to manage it but make it worse for themselves and everyone
else, simply put, we don’t have enough of the right tools and the master tool users are too
few.
Luke 10:1-5 “After this the Lord appointed seventy others
and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself
intended to go. He said to them, “The
harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the
harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of
wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no
sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever
house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house!’”
