TASKMASTER: WHY FINISHING A TASK FEELS SO GOOD

A taskmaster assigns work for others. In a marriage, that person is the husband, or wife.

If two people are lucky enough to have kids, finishing tasks set a good example.

Kids who take up the idea that a finished project feels good make their parents proud. But where does it start? How does it get so easily twisted?

If you have a dishwasher, start there. One does not simply empty the dishwasher and put things away. That’s the first part. The second part is filling it with stray dishes that piled up waiting for an empty dishwasher.

This isn’t a hard task to finish, but there are rules, like don’t put a dirty dish in the cupboard just because it went through the wash cycle. Scrub it first.

The only thing kids love more than housework is yard work. Once the kitchen is clean, rooms dusted for cobwebs, and floors vacuumed and mopped, step outside.

“Children, this is a lawn. It needs mowing, it needs you to mow it. Over here is a push mower. When you push it over the lawn it cuts the grass. The dirt on the edge of the lawn is a flower bed. Try not to mow the flowers.”

New Tasks For The Taskmaster

If you show any skill, or enthusiasm, for tasks, brace for more because they’re coming. That’s how life works.

We build on experience, we develop special skills, and build on those. I’m always amazed at the things people can do when they try. But, it’s never as easy as it looks.

Take music as an example. We hear a song, tap our toe, and react if the song hits the right nerve. Then we turn the channel, another song comes on. There’s nothing in the listening process that shows the grind of making a good recording.

From isolation sound booths, to mics for instrument, amps, and voices, laying down tracks the right way takes time, space, and gear. If the radio speaker is the destination of choice, it’s an on/off deal with a turn for volume.

Listening on the radio is a far cry from the combination of cables and sliders and pedals it takes to record. It’s a labor of love at it’s finest, and we put it on ourselves if we care to sound our best.

Taskmaster Orders You To Be Your Best?

Once you embrace orders from a taskmaster, you eventually learn more about them, and yourself.

“Am I doing this because they can’t? Or won’t? Or they don’t know how, but they’re telling me?”

You do the task because you can do it better, finish sooner, and not be a little bitch about it. If you have feelings, good. Keep them to yourself. Finish the task without complaining because that just stretches it further than it needs to go.

Besides, is ‘being our best’ really a realistic goal? Do we need to be accountable? On an individual level, the answer is always, “Yes.”

Scale it up to a national level, or at least the state and regional level, and look for role models. Who do you like, who do you trust?

If you have a knight in shining armor, who is it? A person? An institution? This is where education comes into play. After enough time the answers come easier. If you’re reading this, you understand the difference between this and that, right and wrong, left and right.

The times change, opinions change, and people try and keep up. How does change affect the way we respond? Take Portland, for example. Is it the idyllic oasis where rich hippies retire young and send their kids to Reed, or the anarchistic hell hole front line of the new war on nerves?

Last night found a dead man on Portland streets during a protest, a protest against police brutality. Earlier in the week two people died in a Wisconsin protest. People who shoot strangers dead are not being their best.

A role model who encourages law enforcement officers to rough up those they arrest is a poor example. A leader who refuses to acknowledge the power of science is not leading. A leader who turns away from regular suffering is not leading, which is ramped up for extraordinary suffering.

If you see, and hear, and pay attention to the words and actions of the American president, do you feel comforted? The biggest role model in the country calls for Law and Order, while side stepping the rules he feels don’t apply to him.

When the taskmaster in chief isn’t up to the job, what’s the downstream message? A sloppy job is good enough? No one feels good about that.