I have decided that the upcoming semester will be the last at The Little Middle School.

To bring the program to an end as smoothly as possible, I'll be headed down to Atlanta for a few months to work directly with the students and teachers. Covid has been really hard on everyone, and I'll be functioning as a relief pitcher. Or maybe the closer.

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It's a metaphor for a metaphor.

If the bottleneck is the part of the bottle that's the narrowest, then in a production setting like a factory, it refers to the stage or element of a system that limits the output.

Like traffic on an on-ramp, unable to flow onto the highway, the inputs get backed up. No matter how much you increase production in other areas of the system, the throughput (and ultimate productivity) will be limited by that bottleneck.

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When I was a music teacher, I had to present some counterintuitive ideas to parents who wanted to instill a love of music in their children.

Rather than advocating for a romantic, passionate affair with the instrument, I took a much cooler tone.

I suggested that practicing music is just like brushing our teeth. We do it whether we want to or not, and then it's done.

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When I was a kid, I would become deeply engrossed in an activity and only vaguely register that my mother was trying to get my attention to ask me to do what I considered to be an unpleasant chore.

When she left the room, I would not be able to recall what she had said; I'd be left with only the prickle of discomfort that had penetrated my youthful cocoon of self-centered fun-seeking.

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When I’m experiencing a bunch of negative emotions around something I have to do, I stop fighting it.

I just let myself take a break and give myself permission to not do the thing, if it’s really going to be that big a deal.

Neither my identity nor my worthiness is on the line. Okay, maybe I’ll let someone down. Maybe I’ll let myself down. But so be it.

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