Friday, September 29, 2006

Learning Never Stops

Just to prove that we're never too old to learn something new, I recently learned two valuable tips: How to stand up straight and how to tie my shoes.
Jean's husband, Barry, retired from the Coast Guard. He has excellent posture. When I complimented him on it the other day, he told me that he learned how to stand straight when he was a Coast Guard recruit. His drill instructor told the recruits to visualize they had a spear sticking out in front of them from the middle of their chest. If the spear was pointing straight ahead or downward, their posture was poor. If the spear was pointing up at a 45-degree angle, their posture was correct. I tried it. Instinctively, the first thing I did was take a deep breath to raise my chest. That helped. Then I imagined the spear coming out of my chest and mentally aimed it at the top of the window. Voila! Now, I just say to myself, "Point the spear," and my shoulders go back, my chest goes out, my head goes up, and I'm standing straight. It works!
I have a pair of shoes that keep coming untied. I don't know why. I used to blame the material the laces were made of, but that can't be the only reason. Well, one day I stopped by Murray Goff's store for a visit. While I was there, I noticed that one of my shoes was untied...again! Murray, with his usual droll wit, said, "Didn't anyone ever teach you how to tie your shoes?" Then he went on to explain that he was in his 70's before HE learned how to tie shoes. Let's see if I can explain the procedure. The first four steps are routine:
1. Cross the laces and pull tight.
2. Make a loop in the left lace with your left hand.
3. Take the right lace in your right hand and wrap it around the loop.
4. Push the right lace through the loop you created by wrapping it around the left loop.
Normally, this is the point where you pull both loops tight and you're finished. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
5. Carefully pull the right loop around the left loop AGAIN.
6. Push the right loop through the loop you created a second time and THEN pull both loops tight.
Since I stated using this procedure, my laces have never come untied AND when you WANT to untie the laces, just pull on one of the loose ends and the knot comes undone just like it's supposed to.
Gee, it's 8:15 already. I'd better go have some breakfast and head to "work".