The Spirit of Broken WheelIn 1983, a busload of AG-attending Mensans toured the Grand Canyon. On the way back, a car sideswiped the bus and damaged one of its wheels. No one was hurt, but 74 Mensans were stranded in the high desert alongside the Highway 89 for several hours. It was quite late when they finally got back to the AG hotel in downtown Phoenix. End of story.
The 74 Bus People founded a town right there in the desert and named it Broken Wheel. Sidestepping the rattlesnakes and mesquite, they drew outlines in the dirt indicating the tavern, the bistro, the nightclub. They held elections for Mayor and City Council. Later, one savvy "citizen" even applied to the United States Postal Service for a ZIP Code and got one (though, due to disuse, it's no longer listed). The bottom line: An accident became an Adventure because creative, positive people turned it into one.
Today, Mensa may or may not be in the midst of a constitutional crisis — it depends upon whom one asks. We have problems a-many, and Graybeards such as I (I'm fast approaching my 30-year anniversary of Mensa membership) may well ask, is it all still worth it?
Oh, yeah.
This is a unique organization, this Mensa Society of ours. When I joined, I actually thought that since I qualified and held certain views dear, most other folks who passed the IQ test would think similarly. They did not — but, boy, I've learned from them. So let us seek to learn from one another. Let us be tolerant. Let us call opposing views different or even wrong, but never "evil" or "malevolent." Let us, with our heightened sense of perspective, enjoy the company of even those whom we oppose in the political arena. We all passed the test. None of us is a moron, and few, if any, are truly malicious. We meet comMENSAlly — literally, at the same table — so civility is the watchword. No indigestion, please!
I'll see you at the table — or better yet, on the bus.
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But
of course that isn't the end of the story. "Broken Wheel, Arizona"
has become a metaphor not only for planned Mensa events that "gang
agley," but also for how we cope together when they do. Robert
Burns' next lines were: "An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain
/ For promis'd joy!" but, hey, Burnsie wasn't in Mensa, or on that
bus. What happened after the Bus People found themselves marooned in
the high desert? Did they gripe, complain, whine? Well, sure —
a little. But soon they discovered that circumstances don't have to
dictate mood, and that Mensans can make the best of any situation, no
matter how agley from the original it gangs.
For
nearly 20 years, I've been the Chief Chronicler & Fabricator of
the True Events of Broken Wheel: The Day Life Gave Mensans Lemons and
They Made Lemonade (to coin a phrase). But it was not the first or only
event wherein a) things went far from their original plans, and b) Mensans
had a good time, or maybe even a better time, regardless. Before Broken
Wheel Arizona, there was Broken Shaft NJ — anyone remember the
'82 Trenton AG with no alcohol and a balky elevator? After that came
New York's "Karen Carpenter Memorial" AG in '86, and San Francisco's
Beer-O-Sphere fiasco in '92, just to name a few of many similar events,
both local and national. Sure, some of us came away with bad tastes
in our mouths (or no taste at all, as in '86). But more found that,
given the company of our own, we could laugh and find the positive amidst
what "normal" folk would have deemed disaster. That's the
Spirit of Broken Wheel.
It
takes more than a broken wheel to ruin a great run, and today's challenges
have the potential to make Mensa better, not bring it down. I want us
to be run right, have an effective ombudsman, and toss people out only
after just and due process. But when I'm in the company of my fellow
M's, I want to laugh. I want to tell jokes or make obscure bilingual
puns that my companions will either get right away or not feel hesitant
about asking me to explain. I want the repartée, the interaction,
the camaraderie I can't get anywhere else. I'd even enjoy a field trip
to Broken Wheel (though preferably in an operational vehicle this time).