Huh?!?!

Mark Twain: The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.

     What words of wisdom! Just this week I returned to my 3-month intensive job doing tax preparation. I walked in the door and immediately said to the accountant and my co-worker, “I forgot everything from last year!” My co-worker laughed and agreed. The accountant, however, just started explaining new tax stuff to me. I truly experienced Twain’s quote above in my first year’s tax work last year, and I can feel round two coming up. Fortunately we all have a good sense of humor about it all, and we have a great system of checks and balances to make sure everything comes out right in the end.

     This morning my co-worker and I were reacquainting ourselves with the new electronic phone system. We were using our personal cell phones to call the office phone and practice transferring calls and so on. Being in the same room doing all that makes for great silliness. To our credit, after a multitude of assorted trials, we finally figured out that one function was not working on our office phones. The person taking the fake calls to help us was very patient, but alas, it all deteriorated into more explaining and less understanding. Oh, and lots of laughter.

     I can think of multiple situations in which Twain’s quote is so very applicable, especially in parenting. Ponder his thought for a while and see where it leads you.

     Done explaining,

          Leta