Editorial note: Opinions expressed here are solely those of the blogger
There’s a great Yiddish word, “shpilkes,” which loosely translated, means a general state of agitation caused by inertia. And I get shpilkes rather easily; I’m one of those people, even when I’m relaxing, who always needs to be doing something. Yesterday, a combination of the ongoing quarantine and lousy weather had me inside for most of the day. But at one point shortly before 1 p.m., the rain cleared and I decided to take our dog Astro for a walk.
So I rounded up Astro, grabbed plastic bags and the leash, donned my headphones, and headed out with him on our typical 20-minute loop. Within minutes, it started drizzling again. Then, raining. Soon, when we were nearly halfway through the loop, it started pouring. But Astro and I kept soldiering on. I didn’t cut the walk short. I didn’t start running with Astro. I kept moving ahead with the planned 20-minute loop.
As I walked the term “we are what we tolerate” started going through my head. I’d imagine the term has been around forever but I first became familiar with it a few years back while at an offsite work retreat when a guest speaker used it. He was speaking in terms of corporate culture and made the case that once you start tolerating a certain behavior or action – from employees, customers, vendors, you name it; it then becomes part of who you are.
The expression stuck with me ever since and I’ve kept it top of mind in my dealings with professional associates, both within and outside of my particular workplace. But yesterday, I considered it in terms of us as individuals. That what we tolerate, both good and bad, truly shapes us.
It might be what we tolerate in our interactions with others. Expressions, phrases, actions, or habits that really get under our skin but we never verbalize for fear of rocking the boat, so to speak. Or the times we (and by we I of course mean “I”) take on an action ourselves that rightfully should be undertaken by someone else, telling ourselves “it’s just easier this way.” We also become what we tolerate when we make decisions in haste, or when we know they’re wrong, or don’t make them at all because they’re too darned difficult. And then come up with multiple ways of justifying, which is really just another form of tolerating.
Yesterday, I was, for starters tolerating being wet. My jeans were absolutely drenched; my hair matted down to my head; my black t-shirt heavily stuck to my chest and my Vans squished while I walked. I have to admit that vanity briefly kicked in and I did wonder if anyone in my neighborhood happened to be looking out the window and thinking to themselves, or saying out loud, “What is that moron doing?”
But beyond tolerating the momentarily physical discomfort, I was reminding myself that you can only embrace the notion of “unprecedented times” or “global circumstances beyond our control” for so long. That in the end we need to make the decisions we feel are best for ourselves and our family. That we all will ultimately become what we tolerate.
I went home and dried Astro. Then I took off everything I was wearing, toweled off and changed into dry clothes. I felt great, refreshed. On multiple levels.
Image credit: kclu.org
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