Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Line by Line - Verse 64, Line 6

order should be secured before disorder has begun.
~ James Legge translation, from The Sacred Books of the East, 1891 ~

Set things in order before there is confusion.
~ Gia-fu Feng and Jane English translation, published by Vintage Books, 1989 ~

Treat it when it is not yet chaotic
~ Derek Lin translation, from Tao Te Ching: Annotated & Explained, published by SkyLight Paths, 2006 ~

Keep everything straight so it can't get messed up.
~ Ron Hogan rendition, from Beatrice.com, 2004 ~
This is a lesson I learned when I worked as a child abuse investigator! On a daily basis, I dealt with upset and frantic individuals and families. Before engaging folks as part of a new investigation, I calmed myself and went over the information both that I would share and that I needed. I approached each situation with a flexible plan of action -- flexible because it's hard to know how each person will react to stressful situations and being accused of abusing or neglecting a child IS a stressful situation for most people.

Once the initial contact was made, the situation could easily have gotten out of hand. By keeping calm and not allowing myself to get caught up in the frenzy, I was able to keep control of situations...as much as possible.

To view the Index page for this series to see what you may have missed or would like to read again, go here.

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