Lateral Drift

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance recently.  In it, the author used a term which I had never heard, and a concept I had never considered.  The term was "lateral drift."

Lateral drift occurs when an individual is faced with a problem and there is no apparent solution.  Despite repeated tries to overcome the obstacle, no forward progress is made.  At this time, efforts to move forward stop, and the individual enters a state of lateral drift.

The author made lateral drift a positive state of being.  It is not precisely giving up, but a state of relaxation which allows the individual the presence of mind to consider different options, although not necessarily consciously.

I suppose we all enter a minor state of lateral drift once in a while.  When we try to remember the name of our cousin's girlfriend in eighth grade and can't come up with it when we see her at the mall and she remembers our name and we strain so hard to remember hers while she is talking to us but it just won't come...and then remember it three hours later when it doesn't really matter any more.  We have relaxed, and then the answer, or the solution, will come.

I would like to think I'm in a state of lateral drift right now, professionally speaking.  I have a problem.  I really, really want to teach.  I'm constantly thinking about it, pushing for some way to get a position.  I'm afraid my letters of interest to hiring principals and my follow up phone calls give off the slightly distasteful emanation of desparation.  The fact that last year and this year I have applied to fifteen schools and haven't gotten a single interview only fuels that fire.

Relaxing a little certainly couldn't hurt.  In some ways, I should be enjoying myself now.  I work when I want to at a job that has gotten more interesting and rewarding for me.  I substitute once or twice a week and interact with some pretty interesting students.  And now I've been hired to help a friend renovate an investment property he bought when I'm not working elsewhere.  There's no real money in any of the jobs, but I enjoy the problem-solving aspect of working at the trucking company, the social contribution and interactions of substituting, and the satisfaction of hard physical labor.

I like physical labor.  It frees the mind.  My mind is in its most creative state while I'm using my muscles.

So, in my current situation, I think I'll relax.  I'll laterally drift.  I know I want to solve the problem of finding a permanent teaching position, but I need to find the joy in where I am now.