A few months ago I posted a blog entry titled “The 3 Year Plan” (click to read). The basic premise is that it would be more efficient for all involved – students, colleges, society – if we moved from the default expectation of achieving a degree in four years to one where we expect to graduate from college in three years. I thought it was a mildly interesting topic, but not that great of a blog entry.
But then Kathy sent me the following Op/Ed piece published in the NY Times last week: A Degree in Three (again, click to read). And that changed my whole perception of my blog entry. Suddenly I felt validated, by someone with President Emeritus in their signature no less! I had clearly miscategorized my entry as boring/silly when in reality I was prescient/revolutionary.
But then I read my entry. And I still had the same takeaway from it as I did the first time I read it. Still, I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud by what I felt was a corroborating, external validation of my thinking. Yeah, the name of my blog is “Trees Falling in the Forest”, and I really do write this stuff so I can see what I was thinking at certain points in time. And yet, I like that I had a similar idea as an Op/Ed piece in the NY Times, and that if you Google “Kars for Kids” or “Frogosphere” there is a link to my blog that comes up on the first page.
This desire for some form of external validation, though not nearly as noble, is a part of human nature. But I think the really cool people are those who can minimize this want for external validation much better than I can.
Like Armando Galarraga.
Galaragga is the pitcher who pitched a perfect game last night. Except that the umpire completely blew the call on what should have been the final out of the game.
So Galarraga, a pitcher who has had mixed success in his young career, does not join one of the most exclusive clubs in baseball history: those who have pitched a perfect game. He did his part but will not go into the record books, through no fault of his own.
But does that make Galarraga’s game any less “perfect”? Does he truly need the external validation that the correct call would have given him? For most people the answer would be “yes”. But for Galarraga the answer seems to be “no”. I love his expression after umpire Jim Joyce blew the call (just a calm, chagrined smile). I love the fact that he took the ball and simply retired the next batter, #28 (making this an even more perfect game than those who joined the club ahead of him and only had to get 27 outs). I love the compassion he showed for the apologizing ump after the game, giving him a hug and saying “nobody’s perfect”. And most of all, I love this quote from Armando Galarraga:
“I got a perfect game,” Galarraga said. “Maybe it’s not in the book, but I’m going to show my son the CD.”
See, Galarraga realizes it is not the external validation of the ump’s call that makes a perfect game. It is the mastery he showed by besting every batter he faced last night. Armando Galarraga’s ability to realize he pitched a perfect game based on his internal validation will not add him to the record book roster of the 20 pitchers who completed externally valid “perfect games”, but it puts him in an even more exclusive group: those who do not need external validation.
Posted by shimdogger 
