life’s jerks and flows, a lesson from ma joad

One of my favorite classic movies is Grapes of Wrath. There is a conversation where Ma Joad reflects on the nature of life’s experiences.

In this scene, Ma Joad shares her perspective with Pa Joad

“Well, Pa, a woman can change better’n a man. A man lives sorta—well, in jerks. Baby’s born or somebody dies, and that’s a jerk. He gets a farm or loses it, and that’s a jerk. But a woman, it’s all one flow, like a stream—little eddies, little waterfalls—but the river, it goes right on. Woman looks at it that way.”

Judy and I started talking about this and our career paths. And everyone has jerks and flows, they just are a bit more mixed.

Judy’s big jerk was going from a teaching career to leading the grant writing department in the international nonprofit, World Vision. Then a flow into writing grants for a school district. And another sizable jerk when we opened our graphic design, copywriting and marketing business.

For myself, in the very early days, lots of teeny jerks, too many to mention. Then came the big jerk, from bartending to freelance design to opening our business. Since 1993 things have flowed minus any big jerks to what I am doing today. But during our first business, I had tiny jerks of bartending to supplement our income.

Oh and as far as life, a lot of jerks and flows for sure.