The Road to Abilene
Apr. 9th, 2004 10:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geovikiI went through a phase at work of going to classes in topics like "Dealing with Difficult People" and "Leadership Skills" and "Team Building Concepts". How 90's of me. Anyway, one of the videos I ran across stuck with me all these years, of a Texan telling stories about his life and relating it to one of those broad concepts (above).
He recollected a very hot Texas summer afternoon, with his wife and his in-laws, settin' on the porch, dying of the heat. Someone in the group suggested that they drive to Abilene, about an hour away, for dinner. So they piled into the non-air-conditioned car, drove through the heat and dust of a summer day, found a restaurant, and had a perfectly typical cheap-buffet meal. They drove back in silence. Back on the porch, the storyteller tried to breach the silence by offering, "That was nice."
His father-in-law turned to him slowly, and replied (you'll have to approximate the drawl):
"Shit."
The point of the story -- and there is a point, bear with me -- was that only then did they discover that no one in the group ever really wanted to go to Abilene in the first place. They all acquiesced out of a misguided desire to be agreeable.
Have you found yourself on the road to Abilene lately?
This idea came to me as my husband drove our son 250 miles, 4 hours, one-way, through the Rocky Mountains to Grand Junction. For. A. Soccer. Game. Does anyone else think this is insane - to have a team so far away in our league?
Other trivia:
I got to have a unique bonding moment with my son as we listened together to the extremely loud and disconcerting noise of foxes going at it outside our window. Definitely sounded like non-con. The vixen was whimpering the whole time, while the male alternated between snarling and out-and-out screaming.
I told my son that dinner and a movie might have been more appropriate wooing behavior.
I'm in patient waiting mode, as the betas for ATBT have at it. No news, but they haven't defriended me, so that's a good sign.
I'm revisiting the 80's (without all the drugs this time), at least in musical tastes.
He recollected a very hot Texas summer afternoon, with his wife and his in-laws, settin' on the porch, dying of the heat. Someone in the group suggested that they drive to Abilene, about an hour away, for dinner. So they piled into the non-air-conditioned car, drove through the heat and dust of a summer day, found a restaurant, and had a perfectly typical cheap-buffet meal. They drove back in silence. Back on the porch, the storyteller tried to breach the silence by offering, "That was nice."
His father-in-law turned to him slowly, and replied (you'll have to approximate the drawl):
"Shit."
The point of the story -- and there is a point, bear with me -- was that only then did they discover that no one in the group ever really wanted to go to Abilene in the first place. They all acquiesced out of a misguided desire to be agreeable.
Have you found yourself on the road to Abilene lately?
This idea came to me as my husband drove our son 250 miles, 4 hours, one-way, through the Rocky Mountains to Grand Junction. For. A. Soccer. Game. Does anyone else think this is insane - to have a team so far away in our league?
Other trivia:
I got to have a unique bonding moment with my son as we listened together to the extremely loud and disconcerting noise of foxes going at it outside our window. Definitely sounded like non-con. The vixen was whimpering the whole time, while the male alternated between snarling and out-and-out screaming.
I told my son that dinner and a movie might have been more appropriate wooing behavior.
I'm in patient waiting mode, as the betas for ATBT have at it. No news, but they haven't defriended me, so that's a good sign.
I'm revisiting the 80's (without all the drugs this time), at least in musical tastes.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-19 10:52 am (UTC)