Mural Genius
Three Birds were painting a mural for their school.
"Marty! I need the blue over here!" Called out Teresa, the first bird.
"I ain't got the blue, I'm using the green!" Marty replied, “Check with Riley why dont’cha!"
Riley was deeply focused on her portion of the mural. This is how she liked to work. This is how she always worked. Deeply-focused and free of distractions. In fact while working, Riley despised distraction of any kind and preferred for their to be no interruptions at all especially...
"Hey, Riley!" Bellowed Teresa, "Do you have the blue? I need it over here!"
"Damn it, Teresa!" Riley responded, "The hell did I tell you about hollerin' at me while I'm in the middle of working? Now you've broken my whole flow and it's going to take so long for me to get back in the zone!"
"Sorry," Teresa replied, "But since you're out of the zone, do you have the blue?"
"Yeah I have the blue, come get it, doesn’t matter now. I'm not even going to be able to THINK about getting back to work for at least 15 minutes," Riley said as she walked away from the mural in a huff.
Teresa and Marty weren't surprised by this behavior at all. In fact, both Marty and Teresa could have mouthed along to some of what Riley was going on about. The three friends had been working on murals together for a long time and had a deeply intricate understanding of each other’s working styles. Marty and Teresa knew this was exactly how Riley would react.
"Riley, could you just bring the blue to Teresa?" Marty attempted to broker a solution, "She's right in the middle of her section now and you probably need to go blow off some steam."
Riley pouted this is exactly the type Of interruption she hated the most. But still, she knew being a team player was important. In fact, many say being a team player is one of the highest virtues. Being a team player is next to godliness. So, despite her anger, Riley decided to take the blue over to Teresa.
While she was handing the blue over Riley noticed something about Teresa's section of the mural --
"What do you even need the blue over here for? You're painting lava!" Riley exclaimed, "This whole thing was a ploy! You pulled me off of my section to watch me fail!"
"Relax Riley, no one is waiting for you to fail. We go through this every time." Marty began, "Just give Teresa the blue, then watch her finish up her part while you get your head back together. By then we'll both be finished with our parts, and you can do your part and you'll see what the mural really is and then you'll get in your zone and while you're doing that Teresa and I will watch in awe and talk about what a genius you are."
Riley was touched.
"Really? You guys really think I'm a genius?" She asked.
"Yeah, your genius is seeing what has been started and finding ways to elevate it beyond what either Teresa or I ever thought the mural could even be." Marty continued.
"My genius is knowing never to take the blue and then ask for it in the middle of the mural to get your process started," Teresa added cheerfully.
Riley felt seen. The genius talk was nice but she was mostly happy for two friends and fellow artists who saw talent in her and wanted to help her grow.
As the afternoon went on and Marty and Teresa had finished their respective parts of the mural they sat down in the grass and watched as Riley began her work. Seeing the whole picture, including the part she started and abandoned and building out a wonderful mural.
"You know what your genius is?" Teresa looked at Marty and asked.
"I do," Marty replied.
