Single-stepper world

It’s not discrimination
and it’s not some gender game
The reason they’re not listening
goes by a different name

The group mind will advance, you see
one step each time at best
So YOUR mind will outpace them
just as if they’re still at rest

You plan for all contingencies
you think in future tense
Anticipating outcomes
based on what transpires hence

You’re seeing things around the bend
and two, three steps ahead
Your words float through their ears like air
as if they’re never said

It’s not that they’re not listening
It’s that they cannot hear
Vibrations from a different plane
though spoken, disappear

And when they finally do catch up
to where you’ve long since been
The credit goes to he who shouts
“Look here at this new thing!”

It’s really nothing personal
you could be guy or girl
You’re just a three step thinker
in a single stepper world!

“Do you think it’s because I’m a woman?” she asked curiously.

It was several years ago, and a friend and I were having lunch at the now defunct Tropical Blendz restaurant on Middle Road here on Saipan. She wanted my opinion of a situation she was dealing with at work.

“Sometimes we’ll be in meetings,” she explained, “and I’ll say something or make an observation, or give a suggestion, and it’s like no one hears me. Then, 20 minutes later, someone else makes the same suggestion that I made, and that person gets all the credit! It’s frustrating! What do you think is going on?”

I told her I sometimes have the same experience. It sometimes makes me question whether I actually said the thing out loud, or perhaps maybe I had only thought it to myself. I have to restrain myself, because I feel like shouting, “I just told you, people, the same thing 20 minutes ago!!”

My lunch partner is a very intelligent, forward-thinking woman. I know she’s a possibility thinker, can visualize cause-and-effect relationships, and is an excellent communicator. I suggested to her that what might actually be happening had nothing to do with what others thought about her, but actually how she thought; in other words, the way she thinks.

“It’s possible that what’s happening,” I told her, “is that you’re operating on a whole different level that they simply can’t fathom, and that’s not visible or audible to their senses. You’re anticipating what needs to be done two or three steps ahead, while they’re still grappling with step one.”

It’s like being in a game of chess in which you’re three moves ahead of the other player. You’re already seeing what the board will look like in the future, and your comments and suggestions are based on that future reality. Meanwhile, the people you’re speaking with can only see what’s right in front of them at that moment.

So, your words—words that don’t fit into their present-moment reality—simply don’t register as meaningful. In fact, they may not be hearing them at all! They may be like gibberish, background noise, sounds and ideas vibrating at a frequency and coming from a dimension that’s way beyond the range of the other person’s senses at that moment. The people in your meeting will never see what you see until they take a few steps forward. Then, when the “group mind” is just one step away, they’ll be able to see what you’ve been able to visualize all along.

So, yes, it could, in fact, be a woman thing, but from what I know about you, it’s probably simply that you’re a three-step thinker in a single stepper world!

The solution? (a) Accept it as your lot in life. (b) Escape the single-stepper world, and find other three-step thinkers to associate with!

(Walt F.J. Goodridge, Special to the Saipan Tribune)
Walt Goodridge is author of over 24 books, and conducts writer workshops to help others pursue their writer passions! Learn more at http://www.saipanwriters.com.