Who's Evolved?

Who's Evolved?

I had a really rough day at work today, what my colleagues and I refer to as a “beat-down”. 

What is a “beat-down” you ask?  It's a day where you can't get ahead of the work.  A day when no matter how fast you go, no matter how hard you push, the world just pushes back harder and faster.  It doesn't matter how good you are, or what your team brings to the table.  You're outmatched.  Outgunned.  Outmaneuvered.  Overwhelmed.

Or, as the rock'n'roll DJ's used to say....”The hits just keep on coming!!!”  

[insert a lot of whining about why my day was so hard]

It was the kind of day that makes you want to go out for a few drinks to help you forget it, or maybe just kick the dog when you get home.

None of my boyeez were available for drinks at the local watering hole.

The dog is far to cute for kicking.

So I settled down to a turkey dinner* and put in whatever Netflix had delivered most recently; which turned out to be The Dog Whisperer.  For about an hour and a half, I watched Cesar Millan deal with various awful dog owners, all while pretending to be working on their dogs.  One phrase kept running through my mind.  It was a quote from^ a Ben Stiller movie: 

“Who's Evolved?”^^

Teddy Roosevelt uses it to show Larry Daley that “fairness” --that idiotic doctrine we all learned in kindergarten—doesn't apply to us.  It only applies to people who aren't as good as us.  We*** are not subject to the rules of fairness.  We are required to give more than we get.  We must accept each new challenge in good spirits and strive to overcome.  We must understand when others who aren't as well-equipped fall short of our standards.  We may strive to help those others improve, but we must be willing to accept their best efforts, even if those efforts are insufficient.  

Or, to paraphrase Pratchett:  to be the best, you have to be the best.  Every damn day.

Don't like it?  Don't want to put in the effort?  That's OK.  The rest of us understand. 

*left in the oven by a post-call, now-comatose The Wife**

**thank you, The Wife.  I probably don't deserve you.

^...I'm ashamed to say this...

^^at least it's a Robin Williams line

*** people of class, taste, and deportment; e.g. readers of this blog