Automatic

No, this is not about a gun, a car, an appliance, or any equipment. This is about an experience I had in the conference I am attending, about our tendency to have an automatic attitude. Every beginning of the conference, we go to a window where we can get the documents we will be using for the day. Together with those documents is the Daily Programme which will guide each participant regarding the order for the day.

This particular morning, I approached the window and asked for some particular documents. The conference staff went to get the documents I requested. While waiting, my mind began to wander thinking about my expectations for the day. Suddenly, a staff appeared before me and dumped two inches thick of documents in front of me. I automatically picked them up and proceeded to the Plenary area of the conference. Wanting to know the order of the day, I flipped through the pages of the top document which is the Daily Programme. After reading it, I said I would read ahead the documents for discussion for that morning. So, I got the next document, but it was also a Daily Program. I looked at the next, and the next, and the next, up to the bottom of the heap of documents. All of them were copies of the Daily Programme! I felt embarrassed. I picked the wrong set of documents. I can just imagine the surprise of the staff seeing all those programs disappearing swiftly. And I can imagine the panic I had done for the people who were in dire need of the Daily Programme! Slowly I picked the heap of documents and went back to the window for distribution of documents and humbly told the staff about the mistake. They heaved a sigh of relief knowing that the documents were back because people, as I had suspected, were already lining up and waiting impatiently for it. I learned my lesson. Do not act automatically.

Stop, look, read, and examine. At least it just happened with the conference documents. I wonder if I suddenly and automatically took something critically important or crucial? While there are many things in life that are routine or automatic, there will always be something that is new and different. There lies the beauty of life; novelty!