Our new home teachers, a married couple, are impressive; they haven’t missed visiting in their 3 month stint, they dutifully bring a message and they’re careful not to stay too long.
Since they are new to Los Gatos it’s been delightful to get to know them and since the husband has been a bishop and a stake president before moving to our ward he provides a good sounding board for Brent and someone to bounce ideas off.
But I’m a little perplexed by a comment they made during their visit on Sunday. I was told that after close observation they’ve decided that I am a very......(drumroll please).....competent person. Competent?
I’m not quite sure how to take this. Is this how I’m perceived by others? If people happen to think about me, I know, that's a little egotistical to imagine, but if they did, would they think “that K2, she is one competent person?” If so, I’m not sure I’d feel complimented.
I’m sure they didn’t mean it negatively (they’re genuinely good-hearted) but I guess I see competency differently than they do. I view competency as adequacy; like being “competent” at “x” or “y" means you’ve reached a certain level but you aren’t “great” at “x” or “y.” So, after their close observation, I was been pegged as competent, which feels a little more like a platitude than a remark I’d love to hear about myself. Oh, well!
But, they’re very nice home teachers (and people) so I really should give them the benefit of my doubt and assume they meant my competence in a positive way. After all, if it was a diss, it’s not likely they’d mention it. I guess it’s just after the build up of how closely they’d been observing me, I thought just maybe they’d come up with an adjective a little more charming than competent. So that was a tad disheartening. But, and not to sound facetious, I will say that they are very competent home teachers (and I mean that in their interpretation of the word)!
“Obscurity and competence - that is the life that is best worth living.” -Mark Twain
