Tralinear

 

Time for the word-coining of the month. I love this one because of the irony.

Everyone has been tralinear. Ah-Hah! There’s the red squiggle underline to double-check me. Tralinear is not a word…yet.

First used in art school, tralinear’s origins were spawned while I was trying to open a door with my foot and knee which were the only unladened appendages. Portfolios, large pads, unwieldy drafting equipment, and the requisite tacklebox every TCAF carried. Let’s just say the T is for toolbox, the rest being a derogatory term for art majors. Jarvis, my dorm, was adjacent to the art building. I provided ample entertainment in my balancing act. A juggler in a parade could not boast such a diverse lode.

Someone in the lobby said I was trying to be a tray. Another guy with a more mathematical mind told me I wasn’t ‘thinking efficient, not in a linear fashion’. Put’em together and what’ve you got, bibbety-bobbity…

Where’s the irony? Well, remember the mathmatician? He said I should make two trips because we lived close enough. The trips would not jeopardize the well-being of my cargo or myself. Thus rendering my ‘tralinear’ state of mind inefficient. When you try to bring it all along, you cannot see as clearly. You believe it’s better to bring it all with you. There has to be a way to carry it all. We are convinced this is the best, or most efficient, way.

Your tasks today…are you doing them efficiently? manageably? a little of both or none at all? Are we trying to carry it all? Should we make more trips with less things? Every trip is different. Maybe we shouldn’t make any hard-set rules. Maybe there is an efficient time to be tralinear and also a time to leave something behind.


Copyright by Mar Startari-Stegall, 2019

Photo by Olivia-Blue

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