How does one become an expert, or how does one know when they’ve reached that level?
On “The Price Is Right” TV game show, the audience is a different people every day. Yet every time I’ve watched, they have everyone, including themselves, excluding Bob Barker, convinced. “We are the experts, turn to us for correct answers.”
I’m afraid that approximately 99.9% of those people aren’t pricing experts at all, but are still tangled in the possibilities.
Ok, until we’ve identified the path to becoming an expert, we’ll need to be satisfied watching the paint drying on the starting gates. But take heart, savor this direct quote from Willie Crawford on becoming an expert.
“Believe it or not, the beginner has an advantage that the old-timer does not have. He sees things through the eyes of a beginner. The old-timer lost the ability to see things through the eyes of a beginner many years ago. Now he assume far too many things. He takes for granted things that the beginner really doesn't understand. That's where the beginner has the advantage.”

We were enjoying one of our “directional” country sight seeing trips where we’ve made no time schedule, nor did we have a firm destination. In the middle of this all, we were stopped for a stop sign in what seemed to us like a remote area of Kansas. I noticed a giant cottonwood, busily bent on shading that intersection, when I got this feeling that something just isn’t right.
I’m sure this feeling’s no stranger to you, you’ve been there, spent some time there, maybe even eaten lunch there.
Well, there we were, not another soul around, stopped for the stop sign in the shade of the giant cottonwood, contemplating what message this strange feeling harbored.
Soon, another question began to edge it’s way into the mix.
How big a notch should one carve out of our non-scheduled time, to try to satisfy this clump of curiosity?
All the while we were obeying the stop sign on this deserted graveled road, the “something just doesn’t feel right” cloud wouldn’t budge an inch.
I finally began to nose our Buick into the intersection when the mystery suddenly unfolded right in front of my eyes. “Somebody had planted that lonely stop sign on the wrong side of the road.”

“Trash can, you’re refusing refuse?”
“Yep! job responsibilities not important enough.”
“So you’re striking out for an upgrade?”
“Yes, I want more elite responsibilities, like the - the -.
“Cookware - no wait, there’s always cold cereal and lunchmeat. The -”
“Food storage container-
No wait, gets partially fed, washed up and sent to bed empty soon after. The -”
“Refrigerator - no wait, pantry bulging with non- perishables. The -”
“Kitchen sink - no wait, was hoping for an upgrade! The -”
“Microwave - no wait, too much time alone. The -”
“No wait ----------------- !”
“ ----------------- Wait, pass the trash please I’m starving!”

“When my shine has lost it’s sheen,
And my attitude’s ruptured a spleen
I’m trapped in, “What could have been.“

“So, when my sheen has lost it’s shine,
I take a quick look down the line,
And restore my attitude just fine!”

An internet joke, re-writ to fit.
A man was driving along a rural road one day when he saw A Three Foot Chicken running down the road. He was amused enough to drive along side it for a while, as he was driving he noticed the chicken was running 30 mph.
Pretty fast chicken, he thought, I wonder just how fast it can run. So he sped up and the chicken did too! They were now moving along the road at 45 mph!
The man in the car sped up again, to his surprise the chicken was now running ahead of him and he was going 60 mph!!!
Suddenly the chicken turned off the road and ran down a long driveway leading to a farmhouse. The driver followed the chicken to the house and saw a man in the yard with dozens of Three Foot Chickens all around him. The man in the car called out to the farmer "Where did you get all these Three Foot Chickens?"
The farmer replied, "That‘s my specialty. Ya see it's me, my wife and my son living here and we all like to eat the drum stick. Since an ordinary chicken only has two, I started breeding this three foot variety so we could all eat our favorite piece."
"That's amazing!" said the driver "How do they taste?"
"Don't rightly know, I ain't caught one yet!"

If I decide to count the chicken’s beak as a foot, how many feet will that chicken have? When a chicken is pecking and scratching for food, it sort of has the appearance of a Three Foot Chicken.
No matter how strong a voice I use when I count her beak, “From this day forward, thy beak shall be counted as a foot,“ it’s going to be impossible for me to change that chicken’s anatomy. The chicken doesn’t care if I rename some of her body parts in a loud voice or not. She will keep using her beak as a beak, thank you, and she will walk on only two feet as long as she lives, regardless of the favorable potential of an extra drumstick per chicken
Oh yes, let’s have the chicken committee write that one in as an agenda item. They’ll teach that stupid chicken a thing or two. So, she chooses to ignore a single strong voice, wait until the many voices of the chicken committee cackle this problem to a vote. You can bet that before they consider this meeting a success, they’ll be able to boast that the majority are holding the chicken accountable for non-compliance.
Maybe that will serve the chicken right but, what does a guilty chicken look like?
Are you familiar with any committees that are operating close to this level?