PEOPLE OF THE NO

I saw a cartoon in one of my professional magazines in which the pastor was bending over at the waist peering into the chair well of a desk, saying to the person hiding inside the well under the desk: "Face it, Mrs. Rockford, you're going to have to use the Internet sooner or later.” Sooner or later progress catches up with us. Sooner or later the "tomorrow" we have been putting everything off to finally arrives and becomes an unavoidable "today." Sooner or later.

We are all aware that we should take care of matters sooner rather than later because the longer we delay, the worse the problem becomes. The Internet becomes more and more intimidating and more complicated the longer we delay in learning how to use it. It's called progress. It is also called reality. It’s called life in this rapidly evolving and technological world in which we live.

Unfortunately progress is delayed and reality is avoided by the operative word of so many. That operative word is no. It seems that, to sort of paraphrase the writer of Ecclesiastes, there is a time and place for every no under heaven.  That is not to say that a no to a suggestion, a plan, an idea is always wrong. There is a time and a place for no. The problem arises when the first response to every suggestion, every plan, every idea is no -- and the second and third and fourth responses as well.

There are too many People of the No. These people live in fear that a yes will cost them something and live with a belief that a no will be, and is, the easy way out.  They are correct, of course, in the beginning. My house needs some repairs. It will cost me nothing to do nothing. It will cost me a whole lot more somewhere down the line when I finally have to bite the bullet and say yes.

Even People of the No know that. But I suspect that they believe, not that the problem will simply go away, rather, that the problem will outlive them, that they will retire, die or move on before the problem can no longer be avoided. "Mrs. Rockford" probably hopes that if she can say no long enough, if she can hold out a little longer, retirement will be at hand and she will not have to deal with the situation. It will be her successor's problem to bring the office into the 21st century.

People of the No want to make their problem someone else's problem. They want someone else to pay for the solution.  Sometimes they even accuse others of making problems where there are none. They want to know what's wrong with the way we’ve been doing things for years.  And sometimes they say no just to cause problems -- the contrary sort or, perhaps, the power-hungry sort.

People of the Yes often don't like the solutions any more than do their counterparts. Only fools like pain. People of the Yes realize that growth means change and change is always difficult, creatures of habit that we all are by nature. Change is also always somewhat painful, always costly, sooner or later. People of the Yes choose to pay less now rather than more later. They choose the pain upfront. You?