Dormant Shortcuts
As revealed in a tree tale
“Yeah, cut that tree, too! Gracias!”
I told my gardener the other day in my limited Spanish, referring to a Miniature Date Palm tree that I kept standing for a while by tying to another tree with a thin orange rope.
It was about time; the tree was pretty dead and more importantly inches away from our roof. And in Miami, you want to keep a healthy distance between trees and your house.
After watching the tree cut into 3 logs and the top dragged to the bulk garbage area across the street, I stepped back into the house.
After the gardener left, I was surprised to find out he left the 3 logs in my front yard and did not trash them.
To be fair, I need to give you some context here.
I started learning Spanish a year and a half ago with the help of Duolingo and watching telenovelas with Spanish subtitles for an extra brain effort.
I can order coffee and empanadas fluently :)
Yet, every time I need to explain to my gardener who speaks only Spanish what I want, I fail the “verbal test” miserably. I can understand more than I speak.
Sounds familiar?
So, I figured it was likely another classic language misunderstanding. A note to myself, until my Spanish is up to snuff, next time I need to use GPT4’s voice mode to translate in real-time :)
It took him a week to come back and remove the remaining logs.
So, the following Saturday, we went to our favorite plant nursery to fill out the gaps the logs had left.
At the nursery, we met a cheerful young assistant who was eager to help.
After explaining our mission, she smiled and said:
“I’m not supposed to tell you this, but Burle Marx you can simply remove from one place and re-plant in the gaps you want to fill. No need to buy new plants.”
“Huh! Really!?” I marveled.
“Absolutely! It will take a few months, but this plant can easily grow back.”
We warmly thanked her and bought a few red Anthuriums for accent.
This whole experience made me wonder.
What other “dormant shortcuts” am I not aware of and needlessly take the hardest route…?
See you next time!
Best,
- Shlomi
Shlomi Ron
Chief Storytelling Officer
shlomi@visualstorytell.com
Visual Storytelling Institute
story > visual > emotion > experience
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