It was Sunday morning, and I had at least 20 minutes before I had to start getting ready for early Mass. The kids were up (I have 5) and it seemed to be a perfect time to both knock off a needed chore and to teach my two oldest an important life lesson.
"Laura, Malcolm, come here" I called. "I want to show you something."
"Here" was the downstairs bathroom, and "something" was how to replace a washer on a shower that had been leaking lately. Clearly, fixing a leaky faucet or shower, particularly when it is as simple as replacing a washer, is an important skill for teens to learn before they leave home. Despite my own shortcomings in the area of home repair, this was a task I had done often enough to be able to teach. Confidently, I reached for the tools and began the demonstration.
Problems began immediately when I stripped a screw needed to change the washer. From there, things escalated, as I took apart the valve stems, mixed up which stem went with which valve, sliced up the index finger on my left hand, and finally reassembled the shower, only to find that what had been a minor leak was now a shower which ran non-stop. The adventure ended 2.5 hours later, after at least a dozen tries, a trip to Menards, and two new valve stems.
As a person who aspires to being a person of faith, at one point I growled somewhat gruffly at God, asking "what exactly is the point of making this so hard?" And it was at that moment, standing in wet clothes in a dingy cinder-block shower, that I conceived my theory of "anti-talents." ...to be continued...
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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