For Wilshire Baptist Church
At a recent deacons meeting at Wilshire, Debbie Meripolski, our deacon chair, was speaking from behind a black metal music stand that had been provided as a podium when she noticed it slowly sinking. She was surprised by that, but I wasn’t. I interrupted her briefly and knelt on the ground next to the stand to clamp a large metal binder clip right above where the silver piston meets the black cylinder. Fixed.
It’s a life hack I learned from rehearsing and playing with the church wind ensemble where we are too familiar with sinking stands. They don’t all sink, but a few do, and I always have a binder clip ready in case I get a sinker. I just happened to have a binder clip at the meeting that had been holding a stack of agendas and other documents.
I don’t know when or where the notion of “life hack” became a thing but it definitely is. Miriam-Webster defines “life hack” as: “A usually simple and clever tip or technique for accomplishing some familiar task more easily and efficiently.” And if you search “life hack” on the internet, you’ll find no shortage of lists and examples. Some are clever and humorous, while others are as complex and technical as one of those “beat-the-clock” fixes from the “MacGyver” TV show.
Life hacks are useful and available up to a point. Sometimes there is no easy way around the hard and sometimes dangerous work of fixing something or making it right. A friend just spent nine weeks in the hospital and rehab to fix a perforated colon. The hole had to be found and the infectious poisons had to drained out before surgery could be contemplated. There is no cutting corners with the human body.
There also are no hacks for many of the ills that beset our communities. It takes hard work to solve issues with crime, education, hunger, homelessness, not to mention the chronic injustice and selfishness that often is the root cause. Still, there may be simple things we can do that aren’t strictly “life hacks” but are effective in making life a little more comfortable for others that may be enduring some hardship. Here’s a few that I’ve encountered recently:
- If somebody you know needs a job, connect them with someone you know who needs help. It’s easy to rationalize not getting involved because it may not be a perfect match, but let them determine that.
- Offer to help someone in an unexpected way. I was climbing a ladder to check the roof and a woman walking by offered to “spot” me as I was climbing up. I said, “No thank you, I’m fine,” but I was wishing I had said yes when I was coming back down because my ladder placement wasn’t the best.
- Keep a promise and show up. Don’t edit the calendar if something new comes up that you’d prefer to do. Honor your commitment rather than pleasing yourself.
- Leave a parking spot open near a door. Handicap spaces are always in short supply, not everyone has a tag that needs one, and lots of people benefit from a shorter walk.
- Let someone with more items go in front of you in the grocery line, especially if they’re juggling children or appear to be running late.
- Be observant in traffic and let someone merge rather than risking anger or even an accident.
- Put a newspaper on a porch if you’re out for a walk.
- Mow that little strip of grass between your property line and your neighbor’s driveway instead of subjecting them to “shag shame” when you’ve mowed and they haven’t.
- Pick up your neighbor’s tree limbs and put them in your pile if you already have one started.
- Pick up trash in the street in front of your house as if it was yours instead of letting it blow on down in front of someone else.
- Help someone feel noticed and appreciated by simply waving. I’m reluctant to do that, but LeAnn is a champion; she waves at everyone. I guess the worst thing that can happen is someone thinks you’re weird, but that’s making it about you when it should be about them.
Those are just a few that come to mind. The list is endless.