Rubber Bands 橡皮带

Rubber bands are important although they are inexpensive and seldom do we need them. Once, I was about to facilitate a leadership seminar at a hotel and I needed to ensure the laptop was to be securely connected to the overhead projector. Therefore, I had to request some rubber bands from the hotel stewards for the purpose of reinforcing the connection between the laptop and the projector. Hence, a rubber band is an object that reminds me of necessary life skills pertaining to human relationship.

First, the rubber band is elastic and helpful for tying two or more things together. In human relationship, it is necessary to be flexible and elastic like a rubber band if we wish to get connected with different people. Often, a person who is rigid in opinions and behaviour will turn people away.

Secondly, a rubber band may be broken if it is being stretched beyond its limit. In a delicate human relationship, such relationship may be broken if one party is over flexible. In human relationship, there is always some tacit understanding between two persons or among the group members. When a person is too flexible, it implies that the person tends to change frequently and become unpredictable. This would ruin the relationship as the flexible person may not be able to follow through what has been communicated to the other person or the groups. Such person may actually be the so-called hopelessly optimistic human being. Using another example, punctuality is a discipline for human beings and organisation. If some people are too flexible in time management until their time become the so-called “rubber time”, then the organisation is so loosed that hardly can they move forward together to attain a common goal.

橡皮带具有重要作用，虽然它们价格低廉，並且我们可能很少使用它们。有一次我准备在酒店举办的领导研讨会授课，我必须确保笔记本电脑能够连接到投影机，因此我要求酒店服务员提供橡皮带给我以便电脑和投影机更好的连接在一起。因此，如何应用橡皮带令我想起一些与人联系的技巧。

首先，一條橡皮帶是有弹性的，它有助于将两件或两件以上的东西绑在一起。在人际关系中，如果我们要与不同的人建立联系，就必须像橡皮带一样具有弹性和伸缩性。通常，一个人在观点和行为上固執不变会让人们远离他。

其次，如果橡皮带被伸展超过其极限，则会断裂。处在微妙的人际关系，如果有一方过于伸缩或容许任何改变，这也有可能造成关系破裂。在两个人或群体的关系中总会有一些默契，然而当一个人过于伸缩，这意味着那人往往会改变，令人難以预测。这会破坏关系或造成误会，因为他很難会贯彻已经传达给其他人或团体的言论，这样的人是正所谓的無可救药的乐观者。再举一个例子，守时是人类和团体不可缺少的纪律。如果有人在时间管理上过于放松，什至达到了所谓的“橡皮时间”，那么这组织就会很松散，以至于他们不能一致前进实现共同目标。