Knot a Problem

My son is an Eagle Scout. I was a part of his journey in a leadership role for most of that span, which means I became proficient in the art of tying knots. Actually, I think proficient might not be the best word choice. It would be more like moderately competent.

What is it they say… use it or lose it? Yeah, well, any level of skill associated with a piece of rope and my two hands has since eluded me. I can tie a double knot, so there’s that. But over the past month, something occurred. My wife is a participant in the annual Melbourne Art Festival as a landscape photographer. And as always seems to be the case, for the past three years, the weekend of the event ends up being the hottest of the calendar year up to that point. Enter the need for a tarp system to provide much needed protection from the harsh Florida sun.

After securing two adjustable poles, a package of zip ties, a 10 x 8 foot tarp, and a 50-foot length of rope, I was ready to construct the ideal shade system. Really, I was the furthest thing from the Boy Scout motto, be prepared, but I was determined to change that.

Enter YouTube and a plethora of video tutorials on how to tie a taut line hitch knot. It would be the one way I could ensure said tarp system didn’t get blown away by some unruly gust from Mother Nature. I watched the simplest and most perfect clip at least twenty times (no kidding, it might have actually been more than that). The demonstrator formed a perfect knot in the video. But try as I might, and after several aggravated expletives, my version of the taut line hitch knot ended up a hot and tangled mess.

After a while, I got tired, but I continued to persevere, with a little less gusto. And then a funny thing happened. Once I started caring less about the end result and simply letting things flow, that’s when the knot became functional. It probably excited me way more than it should have, but sliding that rope to create a taut line was beyond satisfying.

Afterwards, loosening it to its maximum extent, everything surprisingly and easily fell back apart, and I was left with a single strand of rope again. It was eye-opening to realize how a few twists and turns of a piece of ordinary rope could create something so functional, all from–with a healthy bit of irony–tension.

Something supremely comical occurred once we arrived at the site of our booth for the weekend. I was totally prepared for the setup. Chalk that thought up to always expect the unexpected. We learned that we could set up a pop-up tent, meaning that my well-architected tarp system was unnecessary. But that’s okay. The entire experience reminded me that it’s not so much what we accomplish that matters, but more so what we learn along the way that adds the greatest value to our lives.

No matter what we face or how tangled the metaphorical rope of our lives may be, with the right attitude, it’s knot a problem.

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