Tangentially

Every strength has a vocabulary special to its needs from cooking to investing to open heart surgery. I came to tangentially as a cocky second semester freshman. I went to college knowing I was strong in science and math as much as was offered in high school in 1950. I thought a good fit would be a lab technician. The first math required I took in summer school was a snap, and I chose to venture into deeper waters and signed up for Trigonometry for the fall semester. As the saying goes, “How the mighty has fallen.” In a class of all engineering males wearing wooden slide rules, I was one of two females and the other had her own slide rule and was also on the engineering track. I was not attractive enough to call on boy friend help and solid understanding seemed just out of reach. I did make a B along with a life changing decision that this path was not the best choice for me.

One more saying, “It’s an ill wind that blows no good” From that four months I learned how to back out of a parking place at an angle, turning enough to tangentially make an arc that misses the car next to me. A true tangent just touches: my tangents just miss and that is its own blessing.

Yes, deep intersections count in relationships, yet being near by for the moment needed yields results not always known until after the moment passes. I have taught children who passed though almost as shadows only to meet as adults and have them say, “Do you remember when we wrote Holiday Memories and posted them on our lockers?” I’ve had a basket of groceries and noticed the young mother balancing a baby and only one package of diapers standing behind me. In a slight peripheral moment, i’ve waved her ahead of me. The open smile she offered with a true thank you kept brightening an unfolding day for me. Time and effort is not always available to be a large scale caring action. Amazingly, the card written or the short phone contact defines a brush of air as a just right contact. Offer what you can tangentially. What you do may alter the trajectory of the future.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone

Galatians 6:10