When every problem looks like a hammer.
Has this happened to you? Half asleep, starting breakfast and opening the kitchen cabinet, the door fell off its hinges and narrowly missed my bare toes. Bits of metal flew across the floor and my first thought was who is going to be able to fix this? And then sweeping up the pieces, I wondered, where am I going to find replacement parts? There are plenty of problems I know how to solve but when it comes to attempting home repair – either I cause more damaged or it results in running cold water and finding band-aids – and sometimes both happen.
Do you have a growing list of things that need to be fixed? I try to get help from plumbers, repair people, electricians, neighbors, fedex drivers, anyone who seems good with tools. Some items get quickly crossed off my list but others are added to the permanent record. When asking for help, I get to hear some clever stories with plenty of arm waving and head shaking of why these problems are simply ridicules, one of a kind, nonstandard, impractical, not cost effective, and would require an out of date, oversized, metric, no longer manufactured, rare alloy that has been banned in 43 states. Did I ask a camel to cross the desert with no food or water? “Impossible!” And even if it could be done, it would be dangerous to install and harmful to have in a place where people occasionally gather to listen to jazz. Some repair persons, with their years of experience have honed their technical ability and use their imagination to craft the perfect anecdote of why they don’t have an antidote.
Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WON’TS
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me—
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be.
Then yesterday, a handyman breezed in and problem-after-problem was met with a low-key “sure I can do that.” Some troubles dating from the 1990s didn’t even yield more than: “Yeah I could just make a part… next, what else you got… just glue and some clamps — anything else?” And suddenly with the right attitude anything is possible.
Back in a world where every home maintenance problem can have a creative solution, even thought I don’t have a clean room and zero gravity to attempt the repair, now fully awake and inspired to try, I made a closer inspection of the hinge crumbs in my dust tray. Nothing appeared damaged and with a simple screwdriver, I reconstructed the cabinet door mechanism without drawing any blood. Today, anything is possible – by thinking positively and trying. What seemingly impossible problem are you going to solve?