My daughter sent me a text when I started a new assignment.
She said I love you. Remember you have blue eyes.
Blue eyes is code between us. It means your gift is nothing
personal.
That thing you do that makes you feel alive and in the flow is
entirely neutral.
We’ve taken to calling it blue eyes because my eyes happen to be blue and that's a fact. And just like everyone has different abilities, everyone has
eyes of some colour or another. It's not like I'm going to go to work and all of a sudden I won't have blue eyes. I can count on it, every time.
It only gets confusing when I make it mean something like proof
that I’m worthy, special, employable. It's only when I focus on the outcome, that I get lost.
So I wrote this on a post-It and stuck it to my phone:
Hew wood. Draw water.
It’s a reminder that it doesn’t really matter what it
is. Just do what is in front of you.
If it’s bringing out the best in a person, or telling a
story, or conveying a new idea, or bringing order to chaos, or making
connections, or solving a problem, or joining the dots, or dancing, or writing,
or creating, or finding consensus, or leading a team or making things look
pretty, or growing things, or baking bread, or making shoes, or making movies,
just do it.
It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. There is no meaning
in your ability to do it.
Being rich or happy or successful or making a difference is
not the point of your blue eyes. There is no point. There is only do.
This is how Barbara Kruger says it:
This is how Yoda says it:
YODA: Use the Force. Yes...
Now...the stone. Feel it.
Concentrate!
So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you
nothing that I say?
LUKE: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally
different.
YODA: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn
what you have learned.
LUKE: (focusing, quietly) All right, I'll give it a try.
YODA: No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
LUKE: (panting heavily) I can't. It's too big.
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?
Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force. And a
powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy
surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we...(Yoda pinches
Luke's shoulder)...not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must
feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you...me...the
tree...the rock...everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that
ship!
LUKE: (discouraged) You want the impossible.
Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes
closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the
ship.
Soon, the fighter rises above the water and moves forward
as Artoo beeps in terror and scoots away.
LUKE: I don't...I don't believe it.
YODA: That is why you fail.
Now...the stone. Feel it.
Concentrate!
So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you
nothing that I say?
LUKE: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally
different.
YODA: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn
what you have learned.
LUKE: (focusing, quietly) All right, I'll give it a try.
YODA: No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
LUKE: (panting heavily) I can't. It's too big.
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?
Mmmm. And well you should not. For my ally is the Force. And a
powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It's energy
surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we...(Yoda pinches
Luke's shoulder)...not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must
feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you...me...the
tree...the rock...everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that
ship!
LUKE: (discouraged) You want the impossible.
Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes
closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the
ship.
Soon, the fighter rises above the water and moves forward
as Artoo beeps in terror and scoots away.
LUKE: I don't...I don't believe it.
YODA: That is why you fail.
