Choosing to Go With ‘the Rub’ of Life

I’ll never forget some of the lessons I learned during my mechanical trade apprenticeship. It was a tough time though, and I struggled with my self-confidence as numerous tough lessons were dished out during my tumultuous mid-teen years.

As I reflect back now, there is actually a life lesson to be learned from the equipment I worked on.

Part of my job involved repairing centrifugal pumps and diesel engines, and there is a principle of engineering that applies to both these machines that can also apply to life in general—it’s the pull-push principle.

Both pumps and internal combustion engines work on the principle of pulling material through and pushing it out.

The pump’s purpose is just simply that--to move material (generally liquid) from one place to another. The engine pulls in an air-fuel mixture through large valves, and pushes the exhaust (combusted air-fuel mixture) through smaller valves, creating rotary power.

The pull-push principle… when I think about it, life can work no other way. Think about it; momentum, in a linear sort of way, needs to be pull-push to keep it flowing.

If we went push-pull we would not attract things to us and we wouldn’t move them on from us--it would be a stalemate, not linear flow.

It’s about working with the flow of life and not against it; pulling things toward us and then pushing them positively on their way, for instance, in our communications. (All of life is hinged on our communications.)

The theory of large inlet valves and smaller outlet valves is significant. It creates the necessary pressure for both hydraulics and sustained combustion to work.

Think of inlet valves as listening and outlet valves as speaking, for instance.

When we have large valves for listening and smaller valves for speaking the flow of our lives is naturally better. ‘Pulling’ (listening) provides the much needed impetus for the ‘pushing’ (speaking) to occur.

The pull-push principle makes our lives sustainable, and we can facilitate (or make easy) our relationships, keeping them working--like the pump and the engine.

It’s about choosing positively to go with the rub of life, augmenting that linear ‘life’ flow.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.