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Flexibility

I try to be flexible. There are many dimensions to that word. 

Physically I've been doing yoga for decades now. As I age, and when I don't do enough of it, I stiffen. I can still stand, lean back, and look face straight up to the ceiling---strong abs and a flexible back. I'll never be able to sit in half-lotus, let alone full-lotus; I've got hips of stone.

A student thanked me last week for being flexible. She had been sick and I had extended a couple of deadlines for her (as I've done for others) because she communicated with me her difficulties and worked with me to adjust the deadlines to allow her to submit a better assignment.

There are reasons for not being open to extensions. It is more work, but as long as the assignment submitted is in good shape there is a sense of gratification to go along with the work. Some instructors are rigid about deadlines thinking that part of what they are teaching is time management. If that is explicitly a course goal then I can certainly respect that.

I have a lot of different kinds of course goals already though. I want students to demonstrate understanding of their work and communicate it clearly. Particularly during a public health crisis that's already asking quite a lot.

When I was in university I saw a Doonesbury cartoon that helped me to articulate how I felt about flexibility. It was a group of football players huddling, with one player describing a play in detail including exactly how the opponents would react at every turn, continuing to how the player would marry a specific cheerleader and go into a successful career in broadcasting.

I have known a lot of folk with very rigid ideas about how their future will unfold, both in the short and long-term.  Maybe it does work that way for them. I've accepted that while I plan as best I can, I have to be prepared for the unexpected and whenever possible to receive it as a gift from a loving God. 

The good things in my life, the things that have meaning, were the results of hard work with opportunities I had not foreseen. To my mind that is what flexibility is about.

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