2004-03-05 - 9:08 p.m.

Gather round for story time

Now for the big rocks.

This is a story often told in time management seminars, and in fact I believe it's quoted by Steven Covey, of Franklin-Covey/Franklin Planner semi-fame. Instead of quoting it from one of the many web pages on which you can find it, I'm going to retell it in my own words, since heaven knows I love the sound of my own rhetoric.

The story goes that a time management instructor, to illustrate a point, put a large jar on a table and filled it with baseball-sized rocks until no more would fit. He asked his class, "Is this jar full?"

The class responded, "Looks full to us, dude."

The instructor said, "Oh yeah? HA!" He produced a bag of gravel, and poured it into the jar. He shook the jar around until the gravel settled between the rocks and no more would fit. Fond of the literary device of repetition, the instructor asked the class, "Is this jar full?"

Some of the slower students thought so, but the more suspicious ones said, "You tell us, you think you're so smart."

The instructor then brought forth a bag of sand and poured it into the jar, letting the sand fill in the space between the bits of gravel. Since he couldn't think of anything better to say, he asked again, "Is this jar full?"

The students, wondering if they were going to end up watching the jar filled to the molecular level, replied, "Not as long as you keep asking."

The instructor, who couldn't let the bottle of water he had waiting go to waste just because his students were on to him, took the water and poured it into the jar, making a nice big jar of mud soup.

"So," the instructor said when he was done. "What's the point?" After a few bad guesses like "Time management rocks," "That thing on top of your head" and "Everyone needs a terrarium," the students agreed that the point was, no matter how full and busy you think your life is, you can always fit more in if you try.

The instructor yelled, "Gotcha!", scaring several people awake. "No. The point is, the big rocks have to go in first, or they're never going to make it in at all."

So in relation to my last post... my family is a big rock. (Is that the worst compliment you ever heard?) So is my marriage; my friends; my integrity. And right or wrong, my band is a pretty big rock. After the stories I've told, can you really blame me?

I didn't forget God. God's the jar. (Why am I hearing a little computerized talking automobile voice, saying, "your God is a jar"?)

And because there's nothing like beating a good analogy to death, here's one of my favorite cartoons ever. It's all yellow and aged from being on my refrigerator for so long. But for better or worse, this is pretty much my creed (and no, that's not my band).

my mood -

the mood of the whole world wide bleepin' web -