Mind the Gap
When I visited my daughter in London many years ago, we made our way to every corner of the city on the “Tube,” London’s fabulous subway system. I loved the stories-high escalators that took us deep into the labyrinth of tunnels, and the ever-present announcers, who were simultaneously helpful and hilariously Brit-sarcastic.
And I loved the ever-present signs and announcements that reminded us to “Mind the Gap.”
You see, between the platform and the subway cars is a gap. Sometimes it’s just an inch or two wide - and sometimes it felt like a gaping chasm. But for the Londoners, it wasn’t a big deal - just something to be “minded.”
There was something very reassuring about the way they embraced this imperfection in the system. They didn't try to make it perfect; they simply accepted this reality (“Hey, there's a gap there!”) and reminded everyone to step over it.
And you know what? Instead of obsessing over the gap or fearing the gap or complaining about the gap, I just stepped over it, onto the train, and happily moved on.
It feels to me like they've got it right - not about subways, but about life! We work so hard to make everything line up perfectly. And when it doesn’t, we declare it (or ourselves) broken, then we focus all our attention on getting it (or us) “fixed” - so much so that we stop moving forward.
But there’s another choice — one that I learned from the stream of kids I worked with whose daily challenges would skunk most of us. The resilient ones had one thing in common: not having the option of fixing their parents, teachers, neighborhood, or history, they learned to “Mind the Gap” and keep moving forward. In fact, they became masters at minding the gap — in the form of code switching, managing bias, reading others, and presenting themselves as rightful owners of their own futures.
Just like the Londoners, they weren’t in denial about the gap(s), they just had more interest in moving forward than in contemplating the gaps.
Londoners didn’t seem to think, "As soon as we fix the gap between the platform and the cars, we'll have a fabulous subway system." They have a fabulous system right now; you just have to "mind the gap."
And so it is with you (and each of those kids). You are fabulous now. There just may be some gaps that need to be stepped over now and again.
Of course, there are important times when we need to stop and fix the gap, but there are many more times when accepting the imperfections in and around us allows us to simply “mind the gap” and get on with life!
Now, I hope you'll excuse me; I have a train to catch.