Last year we got a new birdfeeder called The Eliminator. It’s a squirrel foiler.
As soon as a squirrel jumps on The Eliminator, no food can come out. The weight of the squirrel causes shrouds to descend, metal shrouds, shrouds impervious to sharp squirrel teeth, closing off access to the seed inside the tube. The squirrel is frustrated and jumps off.
Last spring we left the feeder up a little too long and a bear bit through the tube, so we had to replace the tube this year, and I think it got stuck onto the top and today I could not get it off.
Normally, I would have asked for help, but today I decided to just sit and figure it out. I’m a smart person, I can figure out a bird feeder for goddsakes!
So I sat on the floor and patiently took the whole thing apart and got the mechanism down to the problem part, but I just couldn’t crack it. I felt precisely like that squirrel who hangs onto the Eliminator trying to figure out how to get to the seed, while it’s her own body weight keeping her from it.
But in this case, it wasn’t my body weight, it was my MIND holding me back. I saw the problem, I just couldn’t see the solution.
Howard Gardner has this theory of Multiple Intelligences. Everybody, he claims, has a particular intelligence in a particular area. I know I am verbal/linguistic with a strong inter and intra-personal intelligences, too. So I can fix your novel, spice up your resume, and edit your report. I can also understand your emotional meltdown and I have a good amount of self-knowledge to boot.
My friend Fred, on the other hand, can figure out how things work: heating and plumbing systems, airplanes, Rabbit corkscrews. So while I was teaching Goldilocks yoga tonight, Fred came over and fixed the Eliminator. I don’t know how he did it, but we’re definitely going to have a sit-down about it. Fred will explain the whole thing to me and I’ll be able to see what I wasn’t able to see all afternoon sitting on the floor.
And Fred? Buddy?
If you ever need your resume tweaked?
I’m your girl.
Inspiration Location 