Tackling Uselessness
This post continues my series on Our Little Project
I’ve never been very good at feeling useless.
I like to insist that there is always something I can do. In fact, this very slightly obsessive quality of mine is part of what spurred me to start blogging about wine years ago and part of what keeps me blogging today. I feel like there’s something I can do.
As the expectant father, this need to be useful is frustrated at every turn. As my beautiful wife Kathy experiences the nausea, all I can really do is nothing. As she deals with the occasional cramps, all I can really do is nothing. As she deals with the changes in her pregnant body, all I can really do is nothing. And as the various practitioners and doctors probe and push her here and there, all I can really do is nothing.
It feels very useless. I’ve become a much better hand holder.
This is not easy for a person like me. In my business, it really doesn’t matter what kind of project my clients are undertaking. I can almost always be useful. Writing, selling, strategizing, counseling, negotiating, planning…I have good deal to contribute. But when it comes to this pregnancy…it’s seems like I’m useless.
So, to overcome this situation, I’ve hatched a plan. It will be me who begins the process of seeking out the accoutrement of infancy I’ll study the nature of “baby wipes” and determine the best ones. There must be good and proper way to prepare the home for a child. I’ll figure that out. We’ll need a sleep chamber for Our Little Project. I can make that happen. Diapers or pampers? I’m on it.
Among the things that makes me valuable to my winery, wine company and association clients is that I’m at their disposal. I’m there and I get things done even when the things are unexpected. I can be counted on. In the end, no matter how good I become at assessing the nature of baby wipes and pampers, I’m hoping that this talent for being at one’s disposal is what makes me useful as we progress with Our Little Project
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