More than "enough"

An interesting bit of self-realization yesterday.

We had someone over to look at and fix our washing machine. A lovely fellow he is, he has sold us various appliances, all of which we're happy with, and when he fixes them, they stay fixed. a nice hip-pocket fellow to have handy.

So the washer is misbehaving in its (at the time) messed-up way, and my wife and I tell him how the washer has been misbehaving and how nice it would be if it stopped that. He fiddles around with it for a while, and POOF! Fixed!

Hours after he had left, for some reason I start musing over my dissent-ridden years at my former employer, and I remember how people would insist upon ways of doing things that I knew would not only not work but would cause problems. Has nothing to do with the outcomes They sought, I could have easily guaranteed the goals being attained, but They insisted on problem, extra-work-creating, failure-creating, means. All of which They caused--work and failure and worse.

And I'm thinking about Appliance Guy, and I realize that I told him the final outcome that I wanted but I did not insist upon the means to achieve it. Why?

Because I don't know how to fix washing machines. Let me say that again:

I don't know how to fix washing machines!!!

And I certainly don't know more about washing machines than a guy who has been fixing all kinds of them for thirty frakking years.

Which, during my last years There, was as much as or more than I had been a Computer Guy. I knew more than anyone else There did. People would occasionally tell me that they knew I knew more than anyone else there did.

But that didn't matter, because They knew what they wanted and how it should be done. Their Way, of course.

And as I thought, there was no hostility, no anger, no stuck-in-my-craw anything, I just realized...

They didn't know that They didn't know.

Well, that does sum it up. The blind don't know they're incapable of perceiving color, but the wise further know that they (the blind) have no business picking paint chips or carpeting or clothing based on their color. The unwise will do... whatever it is they do, including raising a fuss about what they can't perceive.

And my big realization was... yup. That's  the way it was. But as for now, I'm just here, now. How They are now is their problem. To quote Summer and Morty in Rick and Morty...

Doesn't matter.

Between Adult Swim and Ram Dass, there are new realizations every day. Yeah, this morning I managed to spill flax seed all over the kitchen floor, but then, and even sweep it up. And believe me, sweeping the floor while sitting in a wheelchair is ... interesting... But doesn't matter. I did it.

Simple is enough, when all you need is "simple." We MSers can grouse about what we can no longer do, but if simple is what you need and that's what you can provide, simple is enough.

And we don't really need more than "enough," do we?