Recognizing Opportunity

  “Once upon a time …” Remember those magical words from your childhood? I was recently introduced to the fact that when the ancient Greeks spoke of time, they were a bit more specific than we are in English. In the Greek language there are 2 words for time. Chronos corresponds to what we mean when we talk about chronological time. The word chronometer is derived from this Greek word. Kairos refers to a moment in time when things happen, or the opportune time for something to be done. This implies the ancient Greeks realized there is time to spend in leisure and to do work, and there is time to do the right or appropriate thing: an opportunity. Kairos conveys that if that opportune time is not utilized, it can never be recovered.   The ancient Greeks were so concerned with kairos that they created a god named after it. Artistic depictions of this god show he had very long hair coming from his forehead, but that the rest of his head was bald. The implication was that when you are facing Kairos you could grab him by the hair and hang on, but once the god of opportunity passed, there was nothing to grab. This implies that if an opportunity is before you, you can grab hold and take advantage of it. If the opportunity passes you by, it is lost.   Unfortunately, opportunities sometimes come at inopportune times, requiring difficult choices. I can easily remember times when opportunities to help patients came on weekends as I was trying to get to my children’s ball games or concerts. My wife well remembers the 2 years in a row we were walking out the door, babysitter in place and dinner reservations made, to celebrate our wedding anniversary when the emergency room called me to operate on patients with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysms. Would I waste the precious kairos to save these patients by telling the ER to find another surgeon or grab the opportunity? I grabbed Kairos by the hair and bolted out the door. Both patients survived. My wife and I celebrated our anniversary another day knowing that I had made the right choice at the right time.   Some opportunities are obvious—like ruptured aneurysms—but others are less so. In every crisis is an opportunity. How easy it is to overlook it, ignore it, or think someone else will grab it. I remember a few years ago overhearing several operating room personnel in deep conversation about one of the hospital transportation men whose home had burned, and he and his family had lost everything. How easy it is to say, “someone should do something,” or presume someone else would do something. We grabbed Kairos by the hair and organized practical assistance for our coworker. We were rewarded with the personal satisfaction of knowing that a desperate family had a roof over their head and daily life essentials. Will you look at crisis as an opportunity?   Often opportunities are disguised as hard work. What opportunity have you or I declined because we thought it would take too much time or too much effort? I have been involved with “opportunities” we are still working on after several years. If you think about it, it is a compliment when we are given the opportunity to do something difficult. Someone has confidence that you can and will accept the challenge even though it will take time and effort.   We all have to decide how we shall use our time (chronos), but I hope we shall all be more aware when we meet Kairos. Opportunities may occur only once and, if missed, cannot be recalled. Let’s determine to take advantage of every opportunity, even if it comes at an inopportune time or is disguised as hard work. If we do, when we think of our “once upon a times,” we will have a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.