By Jim Nichols

Every school day began in the same predictable manner. Mrs. Scanlin got everyone’s attention and began singing as we all joined in. The chorus of the song from the musical Oklahoma included: 

“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’,
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin’
Ev’erything’s goin’ my way.”

We sang with full voice multiple verses and the chorus. Immediately, we switched to the second song.

“School days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days
‘Reading and ‘riting and ‘rithmetic
Taught to the tune of the hick’ry stick”

The teacher in fourth grade was calling our attention to the beginning of an important activity and using music to unite us in a common goal; we were initiating an instructional day, and we were all in this together. It was joyful and directive. She would not admit it, but she was a preacher and this was the start of the sermon. The fact that I can remember so clearly shows its significance to us children. She was drawing each of us to a focus of learning.

“Focus” is a strategic life skill and those who are more experienced have not only the opportunity, but the obligation, to help those coming behind them sharpen their abilities to survey the options and narrow down to the best ones. This can be a complicated process. It includes paying more attention to some possibilities and less attention to others. On an insect-heavy day on the highway, one must learn to focus on the road ahead rather than on the smashed bugs on the windshield. It can be unnerving and confusing.

Experienced baseball catcher and pitcher combinations practice on developing the ability to focus on a common pitch. As the pitcher begins the motion, the catcher puts the glove in a specific position to serve as a “target” for the pitcher.

There are counterarguments, of course. Nothing is as simple as it appears at the beginning. 

Although having a reasonable focus at the start, potential flexibility ahead needs to be in view.

Money investment guides recommend a “diverse portfolio.” If we invest retirement money in a variety of directions, that provides a safer hedge against an uncertain financial future. This is the “don’t put all your financial eggs in one basket” approach and most of us see the validity of that, whether we are successful or not in doing so. 

Advisors (and parents) of university students often encourage them to take a variety of courses. Although a student may well choose a “major,” it is to their advantage to learn about areas that have potential interest in addition to the student’s current academic goal. Most advisors urge students to have a focus, but also to become a broadly informed person and citizen.

The compromise of the “focus” approach and the “flexibility” approach is shrouded in our fear of failure. Some of these decisions, especially for younger people, seem to carry so much heavy weight that even the consideration of them is tension-producing. Many university students have sat in my office with a type of decision-agony as they mentally turned over the multiple decisions they were facing.

Since those of us a bit farther along through life lack magic wands, the best we can do often is to offer perspective. It seems that remaining flexible offers advantages at the beginning. Accompanying that approach is the parallel setting of important boundaries and goals that serve as scaffolding for the development of more detailed plans and their implementation in the future. That is, to set up a focus.

Mrs. Scanlin’s opening songs portrayed an optimism appropriate for us fourth graders. We were already afraid of making mistakes, but she was assuring us that that was acceptable and expected. She was not quoting scripture but was paraphrasing “This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Theologian Verna Dozier in The Dream of God reminds us: “We always see through a glass darkly, and that is what faith is about. I will live by the best I can discern today. Tomorrow I may find out I was wrong. Since I do not live by being right, I am not destroyed by being wrong.”

Jim Nichols is a retired Abilene Christian University biology professor and current hospital chaplain