Bigger, Stronger, Faster

Some say bigger is better, some say stronger is better, but in my world FASTER is better.

Now I don’t just mean lightening fast, like the sprinter or race car. I am an efficiency nut and love short cuts. Get it done faster by getting it done better is the way to go in my world.

This idea took root in my mantra at a job I had in high school. I worked at a local photography studio doing various jobs. One summer, the photographer took on an intern from Taiwan, who we called Roger. I honestly don’t remember ever learning his real name, because someone couldn’t pronouce it, he went by Roger. In his defense, he didn’t seem to mind. Roger was a one-of-a-kind individual. The impressions he made on me have only grown with age.

Roger read through all the manuals of every piece of equipment in the studio in his spare time. He seemed to be in every place at once and was a multitasking genius. My favorite thing about Roger was his generosity and efficiency. I would be doing a mundane task and he would walk in a room and with less than 5 words and 5 minutes, he would restructure what I was doing to help me do it in half the time and then he would scurry off.

I got addicted to Roger’s efficiency. I am still addicted to this day. It helped me waiting tables in college, manage staff/projects in my career, and to be a mom today. I want to do everything faster and better, and within my realm of control I do. I get infuriated with slow, redundant and inefficient. I tap my foot in line at the Post Office secretly screaming inside – man, Roger would have a hayday with our Post Office.

In the world of chronic illness – faster and better is not the norm. In fact, it is rare. Doctors are the last to know what’s going on in the cutting edge of an industry or illness. The only thing efficient about chronic illness is the grass roots effect of social media and the internet to help us learn from each other.

I rely and depend upon a network of warriors out there who have defeated their beast or are in the process of slaying it any minute – their battle stories and successes I learn from each day. That is multitasking and efficient and Roger would certainly approve.

I agonize, though, that I cannot “better, faster” my kid’s health or my recovery. It happens in its own time, in God’s timing. I can research and study and “read all the manuals” in my spare time, but I cannot change the clock. Its tick tock tick tocking reverberates in my head in the wee hours of the morning while still struggling with a little thing I thought was gone.

Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is theLord’s purpose that prevails. Proverbs 19:21

I can however, keep Roger’s efficiency in the parts of my world that remove stress from me. I can be a multitasking genius without letting my plate get too full and keep a generous spirit.

Thank you all for being part of making our health and life more efficient and “better, faster”.

Keep up the good work,

Janice Fairbairn

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