2/21/11—Calling the Professionals

Today's Draw: The Three of Loaves from the Kalevala Tarot. Are you the kind of person that tries to fix broken stuff by yourself? Or do you call a professional the second something breaks? What are your beliefs and/or anxieties around this?

 

This card equates to the Three of Pentacles, which is traditionally a card indicating work toward the mastery of some craft or another. But the lwb for this deck provided a nice little twist in saying it was time to call in the professional...s.

This is a very interesting topic for me. My father was an engineer and was both mechanically and electronically adept. I can't remember once ever taking anything in to a shop for repair or having a professional come by the house to fix anything. Basically my dad lived for the day something would break so he could fix it. So with that modeling in my life, I follow suit. Except that I don't have the education he had in electrical engineering and I don't have the hours under car hoods that he had.

So when something breaks, I'll go and buy the parts to fix it, but won't ever get around to fixing it. I have a dripping sink and a toilet that needs a new flapper right now. I'm perfectly capable of fixing these things...I'm often shocked at the stuff I can figure out. But when I needed a new shed—something I couldn't do myself—it took me YEARS to take care of the situation. Any time I have to call a professional, I freak a little. Unless it's a situation where I have no water or electricity, I'm willing to live quite some time with the inconvenience. I hand washed dishes for a while just to avoid getting a new dishwasher installed. I have serious issues around this kind of thing...haha. And, though sometimes finances have to do with it, it's mostly the anxiety of choosing someone and trusting they'll do the job. And I blame it all on growing up without ever having seen a repairman. :D

So what's your story? Do you mostly fix things yourself? Or do you call in the professionals? And if you call in the professionals, would you do that even for something as simple as a drippy faucet?