Re: Attesting to the Virtues, Harnessing, and the Gift

[billd]

>>You’ve never had a driving lesson, nor been taught the rules of the road, and your given a highly strung Formula One Race car to drive through unfamiliar terrain, through traffic, to the store, and hurry up about it, it’s urgent!!!!

How do you think it would go….what would one’s experience be????? What would observes have to say????<<

Me – I can get into almost any vehicle or piece of equipment and in short order, have it mostly figured out. I was the one who when a piece of construction equipment or farm equipment came into the shop, the boss said “Bill, that’s yours, we know you can run it”. I might not have been able to hop into the seat and take off, but in short order, I was running it.

A neighbor offered help tiling part of our yard to aid draining our well pit area. He had to leave with the job half done and handed me the keys to the backhoe/trencher. I finished the job without issue.

Having had NO formal training in auto mechanics, I was able to “test out” of the entry classes in high school when I was able to explain to the instructor the complex workings of automatic transmission valve bodies and hydraulic control systems. I did the same for 4 barrel carburetors, explaining each passage and circuit.

With very little instruction, I was operating farm equipment such as combines, planters, 4×4 tractors, etc. It all comes rather naturally.

Now – would I or could I without my ADD? There is really no way to know for sure is there?

Is it simply “natural ability” distinct from my ADD?

What about what I do at work – ?

In the “right circumstances” it could be a plus – with the right boss, the right duties that matched my “superior abilities”, maybe.

But in others, it’s a true curse. My current and 3rd wife bluntly asked me – “so was your ADD the reason your other two failed”.

How can one ever know? There are not two of me to test – one with, and one without, and see what happens. Can’t do a blind study now can we?

Frankly, I have it very severely – it’s obvious to those who know what it is, annoying to those who do not.

I’ve lost jobs over it, and had some professional failings because of it. I’ve ticked off some folks really badly due to it.

But what about the good things in my life – many as they are? Is that simply because I inherited the good things from my ancestors? I’ve done a ton of research into my own family history clear back into the early 1600s. Truth be known the whole family was VERY skilled and talented going WAY back. However, that’s on my father’s side. Mom’s side we can’t trace before my great grandparents. No records exist out there. That’s where the ADD comes from. My mother is artistic, but very ADD.

My father’s side includes very gifted and successful politicians, ministers, pioneers, military of all ranks, farmers, blacksmiths, the family for generations was respected, liked and loved, even mentioned in Ohio and other history books. Is it that that has followed me to make me who and what I am, the success I am, and the ADD holding me back?

OR, is it some complex combination we’ll never be able to prove one way or another?

For those where ADD has helped them – cool, I’m really glad, honestly am.

Me, I”m a complex combination of factors with pretty severe ADD…….. the social anxiety part has held me back from being like my father’s ancestors – successful politicians, etc. Even on my mother’s side, they exist – one was a great-grandfather in congress, who was successful as a politician, but disliked as a father. My grandmother complained that he could never connect with them as kids, was never around, and they simply didn’t like him. The way she talked was almost as if there was ADD there, too.

I dunno, toofat and others – will we ever know for sure?

How about we all think positive, try to leverage what we have to do the best we have, and all attempt to support each other, gift or curse?

It may be a bit of both.

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