Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl,

but she doesn’t have a lot to say …

I got up in front of the class and sang.

Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl

but she changes from day to day …

I had to; that was the deal. I was late returning from lunch.

I want to tell her that I love her a lot

But I gotta get a belly full of wine …



* * * * *

It was day three of a four day training offsite. We broke for lunch at noon. I decided to defer eating and head back to my room to catch up on email. We had an hour for lunch; my plan was to do a quick check of email and come back down to grab something prior to the session starting back up again.

I booted up, logged on, and started scanning my email. The next time I looked at my watch it was 1:25.

Damn! I was way late!

And then I realized that, as a consequence of my late return, I would be required to assume center stage and, yes indeed, sing a song.

A mite nerve-wracking …

I made my conspicuous arrival. Everything now in slow motion, I moved to the front of the room. To sing. I had to. That was the deal. Out came the shortest Beatles song ever. It was over before it started.

Her Majesty’s a pretty nice girl

Someday I’m gonna make her mine, oh yeah,

Someday I’m gonna make her mine.

I sat down, and, thankfully, the training resumed. I survived … without any lasting trauma. In fact, it was actually fun; a shared experience with my classmates.

But it was, in retrospect and upon pondering, more than that.

You might think this silly … but I do think I learned something from that experience that day.

I learned that it doesn’t take much for me to very quickly descend deep into an issue or topic, losing all track of time and space. It’s like my senses get hijacked. I get lost in my thinking … and the space around me no longer is… well… there. A flow experience of sorts. Certainly, for the MBTI aficionados out there, a classic introverted thinking experience.

(Some twenty years later, when I have the urge to check my email on my smartphone while I’m driving, I think of seeing 1:25 p.m. on my watch that day … and I resist. Sometimes at the next red light I check … but it is disconcerting when the beep from the car behind startles me back to see the green light!)

I think I also learned that uncomfortable situations are simply that, uncomfortable, but not debilitating, and not permanent. So, if I face my fears, if I summon up as much calm as I can, I can get past the discomfort.

It really isn’t so bad, whatever it is.

I of course am still nervous when facing tough situations; it still is a challenge to keep composed and maintain perspective; but I know I will get through it, and may even be better for it …

And I think that experience was a personal example reinforcing for me that actions have consequences, regardless of intention. When I’m responsible for the action, then I own the consequences. There is no injustice; there need not be fight; only acceptance.

These, I think, are my singing lessons.

* * * * *

You may think this silly.

But I think we can learn more from these rather fleeting and insignificant life experiences than we do our major life events.

What do you think?