The World's Common Tater

We went to see Top Gun: Maverick Saturday. Luckily, I was correct in my assumption that it was the one move that would convince my wife to go to the theater. it did not disappoint. We loved it. My wife still thinks the original was better. I think it is close and the new one might win.

I was thinking about part of the movie as I went to my first day as a facilities volunteer at the therapeutic riding place. That part – Maverick telling the pilots “Don’t think, just do” That isn’t always good advice, but it is in certain situations.

I tend to think too much in situations where I could stand to take this advice. The facilities shift was one of these situations. I had a couple of hours shadowing someone doing the job before they asked me if I was ready to do it alone in a couple of days. It seemed pretty straightforward, so I said yes.

The morning of the shift is where the thinking came in. The job is pretty basic: hitch a Gator up to a drag, drag three arenas, hitch a tractor up to a water tank, drive around and fill up the water troughs in the fields, and use the tractor to push the manure in the dumpster to the back to make room for more.

Pretty easy stuff. Stuff you don’t need to think about. But think I did. My anxious voice kept telling me I wasn’t ready to do it alone and that I would mess something up. This made me think too much about everything and slowed me down as I was working. Once I was moving, I was able to stop thinking and just do the job.

Sometimes you have to get out of your head and out of your own way and just do it. I’m still working on that.