Thursday, June 07, 2007

Why do we do what we do?

I had an interesting thought/analogy about the life last night. Why do we do the things that we do? I think this is especially true about organizations but can apply to individuals. Do what we do because that's what we've always done, our of habit or duty, or is it about passionately pursuing purpose? About heart?
It's like in my first aid training. You find an unconscious, not breathing victim and your perform CPR, right? What are you doing? You're maintaining the mechanics of it. You're pushing the blood around and just basically keeping the body alive – functioning but not really alive. In fact, they're clinically dead. Not a bright thought before going to bed but it's true. It's not likely you're going to revive the person – 2% is the recent stat I was given on the percentage of people revived by CPR. That's why they bring out the little paddles and shock the person. There's an electrical component to the heart. It needs a shock to the system to reorient it and revive it…to get it running properly and to bring new life (Did I get that right, Tash?)
I got thinking about how often we get into just keeping things alive by maintaining the status quo or the mechanics, merely pumping the blood around doing what's always been done and keeping things running but not really alive.
We need a shock to the system to be revived, just like the heart does.
Will someone bring out the paddles?
Clear!

2 comments:

The Best's said...

Nice analagy! I get this kind! NIce to know that my kids are not the only ones that can teach you a thing or two.

You were pretty close on the details but Shocking the heart doesn't revive it per say but actualy stops the heart so that it can reset itself.

What other life lessons can you pull from a couple days of first aid?

Stacey Sparshu Miller said...

I remembered that about the heart but it just didn't work as nicely with the analogy ;) Although maybe it does...put a shock to the system and sometimes it wants to quit...and it definitely needs to reset, or at least reorganize, before it carries on.

As far as other analogies, I'm sure I could come up with a few more. Perhaps something about community holding us together when we're broken...like a splint. I'm sure burn treatment could be useful. Oh ya, there's tons...this one's just part of my current thought process!

See...I did put all of your hard work to use! It's a good thing I hang out with you guys or I'd have nothing to teach/be taught with...there'd be no good life lessons! Says something about how wise the Bests are, huh!?