One In, One Out

A while back my wife and I were at a friend's house, and she offered to my wife a large serving dish that she no longer had need for. My immediate thought went straight to our current kitchen. Though not tiny, it's not exactly the Taj Majal of kitchens either; and we have, by my estimation, many dishes. While I certainly embrace my wife's creative cooking proclivities and penchant for presentation when hosting others at home, I selfishly imagined one more dish falling out of a cupboard I opened while dutifully putting dishes away (or, more likely, searching for M&M's). What I requested of her, then, upon the offer of the dish, was a one in-one out approach. One new large dish in, one unused dish out. We agreed.

For anything that's full, the one in - one out approach isn't mere philosophy, it's fact. I discovered that this week in my teaching. After going to a conference recently and picking up several great strategies for teaching better, I wanted to try many of those ideas in my class this week. What I found, however, was that to do those cool approaches, I had to cut out something that I currently do. And all the preparation time the new activities took came at the cost of time I would have spent in timely evaluation of the current stack of essays that are haunting me. As much as I'd like to be the best of the best at everything, whatever I add comes at a cost.

The same is true of schools as a whole. I read in the Des Moines Register this morning about the number of Iowa kids that go to school hungry every day. To combat this, the most-implemented strategies involve the public schools. Schools are being called on to feed kids breakfast, to send food home with kids for supper, and to teach them during the day about nutrition, wise grocery purchases, and healthy living in general. All those are really important; however, if you put something in, you've got to take something else out. Something else will suffer. You either want schools to combat starvation or literacy. You can't have it all, despite what the press and the government attempt to get you to believe. 

As I sat in church this morning, examining my week and my fumbling efforts to live life well, I realized that personal improvement is a one in - one out reality as well. If I want to add something to my life - more Bible reading, more prayer, more peace, more writing, more time with my wife/kids - something's got to go. If I want to focus on being more disciplined, I've got to focus less on other aspects of personal growth. I can't do it all, all the time. The key is to take in only the really essential proverbial serving dishes while putting out the ones that are merely cluttering my cupboards and preventing me from serving an excellent meal. And if the cupboards are full, and they're full of essentials that I need to create that perfect supper, then I've got to learn to make do with what I have, polishing and shining and presenting with those dishes to the best of my ability every day.