YYC Evening Sunset
Photo taken by the author
When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.
– Dale Carnegie
There’s this saying I have had in my head for quite some time now about human relations:
People are always the problem and people are always the solution.
I have always innately believed this saying and it’s only been within the last few year’s that I have actually been able to put this belief into words. And yet, time and time again this saying continues to prove true for me. I don’t know what it is about this line, but it has been my observation that this saying just seems to play out like it does, in nearly any interactions involving people.
It seems that in any area of life, somehow or another, people are involved. This can be in the workplace, at home, while running an errand, at church or our own place of worship, the grocery store, the library, filling up your car with gas at the pump, doing a favorite hobby or playing a favorite sport, literally any place that you may go throughout your week. Even with the increase of machination, it still holds true today that it takes a person, or a group of people, to get something done. And generally speaking, when a task goes well, it really is cause for a celebration, no matter how small or large the task may be. In other words, this successful task is really a miracle, considering all the steps, stages, and people it takes to execute one particular task to completion. This is so because in any process or way of life it usually involves people, lots and lots of people, to ensure the successful completion of one thing from beginning to end. And the steps along the way normally require a whole string of people needed to ensure the process actually does get done, gets done well, and on time.
Yet, this same process can also be when a breakdown could occur at some point during the beginning to end of whatever is trying to be performed. Of course, we all know what it looks like and feels like when either a product, service, or task goes wrong. In the same way that negative news sells, so it is when a process breaks down. In other words, people tend to talk about it far and wide, as these people whom are affected recognize that at some point along the way, some person or group of people, did not do what they should have done in the necessary steps towards the completion stage.
I have seen this from time to time in the various company stores I frequent in getting the things I need. That being said, when there is a problem it’s because people are involved, and when a product or service turns out as it should it’s because people are involved. There is simply no escaping this fact of life that it takes people to give something a person may want. We live in a world of over seven billion people on God’s good, green Earth. The idea that any one of us could get something we desire or want on our own is simply a ridiculous and ludicrous idea. Essentially, we are all part of one larger picture of human relations and each of us is learning what it means to work together with our fellow man, whether the end result turns out well or could be improved upon, because again, people are involved, for better or for worse. It’s no wonder it can take a lifetime in learning how to deal with this fairly simple and straight-forward concept of getting along with those in whom we interact with. This concept of human relations really is quite mysterious and wondrous when you think about it in this light.
Dwight Van Middlesworth 