Semper Gumby
Being 'always flexible' is a virtue. I'm working on it.
I had a meeting with a colleague scheduled on the calendar a few weeks ago. He returned from a business trip and emailed me saying he was sick. He asked if we could reschedule.
No problem. We checked our calendars and picked a date and time.
The day before the meeting, he wrote to me again. He was still battling a virus. He thought he would be better, but he was progressing rather poorly.
I told him I hoped he started to feel better soon, and we would try again after the long, Memorial Day weekend,
“Thank you for the flexibility,’’ he wrote back.
Of course.
I have never thought of myself as “flexible.’’ People don’t pull it out as an adjective to describe me. I am a man of routine, driven by deadlines.
Oh, I used to be flexible, at least in a physical sense. Back in the day, I used to run, jump, climb, and skedaddle in almost every direction. We pretended to be hammerhead sharks on the floor of Mrs. Greene’s kindergarten class. In the eighth grade, I did 600 sit-ups to get an “A” in Coach Hosack’s P.E. class. I was crowned champion of the family whenever we played the Twister board game.
Now, flexibility has all but left town. Until I get my coffee, I move so slowly in the mornings I’m like the Tin Man begging for his oil can. I can roll around on the floor of the playroom with my grandchildren. Getting off the floor, however, is an entirely different matter. And these fingers that have typed a billion words and stretched themselves across guitar frets and piano keys are not as limber as they once were.
Of course, flexibility can be something entirely different. It is making yourself available. It is bending, shifting, moving and adapting your schedule to meet the needs of others.
I have not always been this way. Being inflexible has been one of my greatest faults. I have been guilty of always thinking my time was more important than other people’s time.
In my advancing age, I understand the value of it. It is a virtue.
A few days after the rescheduled meeting with my colleague, I came across some words of wisdom written by a teacher in the margin of one of those calendar planners.
Semper Gumby.
Always flexible.
.That phrase has been around a while – for almost 50 years, a dog Latin variation of the Marine slogan “Semper Fidelis,’’ which means “always faithful.’’