The Power of 1

Less than two weeks ago the calendar advanced our lives by one year all across the globe.  Missing were the big crowds of revelers awaiting the descent of symbolic apples, cheeses or fish at the stroke of midnight.   Even Auld Lang Syne fell on our ears less sentimentally than we’re accustomed, bringing 2020 to a close for souls hoping that all of its virally tinged memories would soon be forgot.  Yet through the gloom of this year’s diminished celebrations stands one figure above all others that offers a glimmer of hope in this interminable season of despair:  the number “1”.   Happy New Year, Twenty-twenty-ONE.  May you bring us relief and restoration from days and weeks and months in which your predecessor in time proved to be a huge “0”.

In this year upon which we have just embarked, “One” is anything but the loneliest number:  it is the most welcomed, not only for its promise, but also for its power.   How so?  The number “1” has the power to remind us of both of our own possibilities and our own responsibilities as we awaken to each new, and heretofore unlived moment of the times that lie before us.  This simple riddle should clarify what I mean.

What is the one thing you cannot do? 

Every time I have presented this riddle to children in a chapel or classroom, I have been greeted by a chorus of answers that recount the supernatural feats of their CGI manipulated big screen superheroes.  “You can’t fly,” “you can’t make yourself invisible,” “you can’t turn back time.,” are a few of the solutions blurted out, all of them correct but none what I was looking for.   I’m always seeking an answer much simpler, more down to earth and rooted in reality rather than fantasy. I’m looking for the answer concealed right in the middle of the riddle itself:  what is the one thing you cannot do?  One thing. 

So simple, so obvious, so powerful:  the power of “1”.  It is a power that each of us may possess and all of us should keep clearly in mind as we take our first steps onto the uncharted pathways of 2021.  You see, none of us can ever do just one thing, even though we think we can and often act on that mistaken premise.   We can’t say or write just one word.   Nor can we perform one singular deed with no aftermath.  This truth of reality governs the lives and conduct of the simplest and most common among us as it does those whom we adorn with fame, status and titles.  How can this be so?  Because everything we do or express beyond the confines of our own private thoughts or the solitude of our own sanctuaries sets in motion a chain of necessary effects. Human words and deeds, more quickly and influentially than butterfly wings on the other side of the planet, create a sequence of responses and reactions—for good or for ill, and sometimes for both—that gives birth to more words and further deeds that, in turn, ripple across a global pond of consequences that defy our control or negation.  The sorry and unbelievable events of this past week in our own nation’s capital bear tragic witness to this fact, this power that each one of us, from presidents to protesters, from legislators to commentators to bystanders possesses.  We can never do just one thing, especially not in 2021.   Dare we, then, be anything less than thoughtful, careful and considerate in each and every “one” thing we do or say?

The riddle of “1” has a corollary that is equally essential for us as we begin this year.   

What is the one thing you must do if you are to succeed in life? 

There is that “one thing” again, buried in a riddle inviting its discovery.   The 1991western comedy, City Slickers, portrays a scene in which a grizzled old cowboy named Curley, played by Jack Palance, is asked by vacationing dude ranch greenhorn Billy Crystal, “what’s the secret to life?”  Curley’s reply is as profound as it is short: “One thing.  If you want to be good at anything, you have to be able to do one thing.”   And therein lies the extent and limit of our possibilities in each of the days we’re about to face in this year of 2021.

Over a career as a pastor, teacher, coach and father, I’ve found Curley’s formula to be sound advice, the kind I’ve needed to hear when I’ve felt inundated by stress, overwhelmed by work or paralyzed by angst.  This One thing principle has allowed me to stop looking at my problems as if they were an immense boulder crushing my back or a suffocating fog stealing my breath, and see them instead for what they were: a collection of many worries and challenges that I can meet and overcome if I take them on, one by one.   Pressing further, the One thing principle then has empowered me to dissect, carve up and break down what is overwhelming in smaller, doable decisions and tasks to be tackled in a logical sequence over a realistic span of time.  And it works when I actually follow through on the plan.  You see, all of us can take on and accomplish one thing at a time.  But none of us can scale a mountain in one leap. And since we only ever really live in one moment—the present--we can only ever do one thing at a time anyway. 

High school students cannot by dint of worry secure an acceptance into the college of their dreams—but they can work on tonight’s homework in that one subject where their grade will help make a case for their admission.  Athletes can’t win a championship or ensure an MVP award by wishing it—but they can focus on the one thing—catching a pass, seeing the pitch, improving their backstroke, perfecting their tennis serve—that, when embraced as a daily self-discipline, will give them their best chance to perform their best.  And middle-aged men and women can’t lose 20 pounds today or this week—but we can do one thing at a time, such as limiting ourselves to one helping of food at the dinner table or walking a few miles each day.  Whenever we make the commitment to do one thing at a time we greatly enhance our possibilities for attaining a goal or overcoming an obstacle that, in the short run, threatens to defeat us.

There is a psychological benefit that accrues each time we focus on just one aspect of a much bigger challenge.  We gain some of that serenity that comes from accepting the fact that we cannot do all things perfectly, quickly or easily; none of us can fix every problem or remove every difficulty in reveries of wishing, hoping or fretting.  But all of us have the ability to do one thing at a time, and do it well.  String these together and we discover how many big things we can accomplish and overcome.

During the year 2021, “One” may still be the loneliest of number, at least to the lovelorn.   But for those who understand what that same “1” means in terms of our own responsibilities (what we cannot do) and our possibilities (what we can and must do), the Power of One may help us chart a course in our lives that is not only new, but happy as well.