I Can Do That!
My daughter, Emily, at the learned age of 8 taught me a lesson
that has never left me.
The church we were attending at the time was planning a huge
Christmas play. They were pulling out all the stops and were
abuzz with excitement. Mary, the pastor's wife/casting director
was in hot pursuit of the lead role: A young girl with many,
many lines. In fact the character appeared in every scene and
spoke in all but one.
It was my understanding that she wanted a teenager, but girls
weren't exactly lining up in front of her. A. Practices would
take place each Friday and Saturday night for a month. B. Forget
a line + suffer humiliation = life's over.
Then one Sunday evening, Mary headed toward me smiling like a
cat with salmon on it's breath. My first thought was, "Has she
gotten that desperate?" I started filing through my mental files
for the folder marked EXCUSES, but realized soon enough I didn't
need excuses because she didn't need a 28 year old teenager.
She: "Sweet Emily has saved the day!" Me: "My sweet Emily?" She:
"Of course. She wants the role. She's so excited. I showed her
the script, and how many pages there are to memorize. She said
she could do it."
Me: "Then she'll do it."
My freckle faced, beautiful little girl who had never done
anything remotely like this had just signed on for something
realistically over her head. Realistically. But 8 year olds
don't think realistically. They'd never stoop to that.
When I first asked her about it and offered to loan her my
EXCUSES folder, she told me what she had apparently told Mary,
"Oh, I can do that." She even seemed incredulous that we adults
hadn't thought of this before - the obvious solution.
We spent the month at week-end practices and kitchen table
readings. I was even more amazed than usual with this little
girl! She not only was nailing her lines at practice, she was
feeding lines to older kids AND adults. When the performance
rolled around Em was, OF COURSE, magnificent. She didn't blow
one line, and in fact covered like a seasoned pro for an adult
who had forgotten his line. I've never seen such utter relief on
one man's face!
With a very sharp mind (she gets that from her dad), hard-headed
determination (also from him) boldness (ditto) and a flair for
the dramatic (what I brought to the gene party), the child was,
and is, loaded with assetts.
But what left an impression on me was her can-do attitude. Not
once did she complain or give voice to any doubts. She knew she
had a lot of work in front of her and knew it wouldn't be easy.
But she knew something more important. She knew she could do it.
And she did.
When I'm confronted with difficult situations and am tempted to
throw in the proverbial hat, I think back to the look on her
face and the determination in her voice. I remember a very thick
script covered in yellow highlighter, marking countless lines. I
remember a tiny girl turning off cartoons and lying on the floor
with a huge pile of work. I remember looking closely into her
big blue eyes and not seeing a trace of doubt or nervousness.
Then again, why would she worry. As she said, "Oh, I can do
that."