Mincey’s Musings
Year One, Week Thirteen

Three weeks ago I shared an instance in which I let the preconceived notions of others affect the way I felt about my work study supervisor. The following week I shared instances in which I have incorrectly judged a person to be kind. Last week, I related instances where impressions have come into play for (and against) me. Today, I talk about the difficulties of being placed on a pedestal, the “5/90/5” percent theory.

For most people, I estimate that approximately five percent of the people who know them feel they can do no right. There is no need for a person to try to win over this five percent, as fault will be found with anything. As an example, I will use an instance when then Superintendent of Schools David F. Coppock dismissed for inclement weather.
I was principal of Sharps Chapel Elementary. One winter day, I received a call from the Central Office telling me that school was going to be dismissed. I asked why, and was told there was three inches of snow on the ground in Luttrell, less than twenty miles “as the crow flies” from my office window, which showed not one flake of snow either on the ground or in the sky. I laughed and said, “Who told you that lie?” (More amazingly, I was wondering, “Why did you believe it?”)

I learned later that there was indeed a sudden, unexpected storm that resulted in significant snow on the ground in Luttrell. Cars were sliding into ditches and buses were having difficulty returning to the school to run their routes. I also learned that when Luttrell Elementary Principal Gary Chandler had earlier called the Central Office to report this storm that he was not initially believed.

As the old New England Primer said, “In Adam’s Fall, We Sinned All”. When one Union County school is dismissed for inclement weather, all other schools are dismissed also. When the news was announced to the Sharps Chapel community, where not one flake of snow was evidenced, people actually started grumbling, until snow started falling in Sharps Chapel! Then everyone was pleased at the wisdom of the Superintendent and thankful for his wise care for the safety of the system’s students.

As often happens with East Tennessee’s weather, within an hour after the last student was dismissed the sun popped out and the snow melted. About half an hour later, a parent showed up at school, demanding to know what was wrong with that crazy school board for letting school out on a pretty day like this!

We must never forget the disgruntled five percent—they are fickle as the wind. Sometimes people do unwise things, such as commit a crime, for which they suffer loss of reputation that results in the percentage of their detractors being greater than five percent. If you happen to be the President of the United States, or pastor of a church, your disapproval rating will almost always be greater than five percent every day you serve.

What accounts for the great variation in the percentage of people who might at any one time be your detractors? It is due to the vast ninety percent in the middle—those whose opinions change based on their personal circumstances. They are like the lyrics of an old Patridge Family song, “Up, Down, All Around (Like a Roller Coaster)”. This group becomes very important to those who seek election or re-election to public office.

I once knew a politician who was appointed chairman by his organization. In a public speech, he declared the members to be the best group of people he had worked with in his three decades of service. The following fiscal year, that same group removed the chairman as their leader, resulting in his opinion that they had become the “sorriest bunch of *&^%$#@’s he’d ever seen!

Consequently, when this politician was later defeated in an election after serving several terms, he said that if everyone who told him they would vote for him that last time had done so, no other candidate would have received a single vote!

While the ninety percent in the middle are unpredictable, as they can go either way, far more dangerous is the five percent at the top who think you can do no wrong. For them, the only way you can go is down, and the fall is hard. The fall is so hard that you come out looking like Humpty Dumpty, and all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t put you back together again.

Sometimes we do this to ourselves when we are perceived to have betrayed a friend. The old cliché “perception is reality” is all so true—once trust is broken, even if the relationship is restored, it will never be the same. Usually, this happens through our words. A poem I encountered in elementary school by Carl Sandburg says:

Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is not easy to call them back.
They wear long boots, hard boots; they walk off proud, they can’t hear you
calling—
Look out how you use proud words.

I remember a song that we sang with our elementary music teacher, Ms. Aleene Griffith, elementary school:

Make new friends, but keep the old,
One is silver, the other gold.

May each of you have coffer full of both silver and gold.
Next week I will share about one of my top five percent, from whose pedestal I never fell.