It occurred to me today that we need to be able to count on consistency.

I take a bus to and from work every day. The bus leaves the bus station, where I get on, at 7:15 every morning. It leaves the the bus stop, near where I work, at 4:30 every afternoon. Because I know these times, I am able to take the bus to and from work consistently. If I am late in the morning, the bus will be gone. If I have to stay at work late in the afternoon, the bus will be gone.

The consistency of the bus route is an integral part of how that whole system works. If people couldn’t count of the bus to be at a certain place at a certain time, then it would be unreliable –obviously– and people need to be able to be at certain places at certain times. If I have to be at work at 8:00 every morning, but the bus is late half the time, then I’m late half the time.

My boss won’t like that.

Or, let’s say that I like to grab a coffee from a local coffee shop, mid-morning, as a pick-me-up. It costs $2.35. I usually have two dollar bills, a quarter, and a dime ready to go. Because the price of the coffee hasn’t changed in forever, I know what I am going to pay every time and I am able to be prepared for it.

If I bought that coffee today, and it was $2.35, and then I bought it tomorrow and it was $1.99, and then I bought it the day after and it was $2.85, that would be inconsistent. While it might not be the end of the world, it would raise some questions in my mind about which of those prices was the right price. I might complain on the day that it costs almost three dollars, saying that I’d payed less than two the day just prior.

I have been running a lot this year. Just shy of three hundred and thirty miles so far. And, from time to time, I’ve stepped on the scale in my bathroom, to see whether or not it’s having an effect on my overall size.

It’s not, by the way, which is kind of frustrating.

But scales are another one of those things that we count on to be consistent. If my scale told me one day that I weighed 225 and the next day it said 185 and the next day after that it said 200, I would throw that scale in the garbage and buy a new scale –and not just because it wasn’t telling me what I wanted to hear, either.

* * *

When you stop and think about it, there are a significant number of things that we absolutely require consistency from. In fact, I would say that the consistency of a thing is even more important than –let’s say– its accuracy or inaccuracy.

I’ve known people who set the clock in their car to a time that is not accurate –say, a few minutes fast– so that they will look at that clock and be in a hurry when they maybe don’t really have to be. The clock itself is inaccurate, but consistently so, and the information about its inaccuracy, paired with its consistency, can be used to establish a different standard.

Or, let’s say that I know that my bathroom scale is always a few pounds heavy. I know this because I have, on several occasions, weighed myself on it, and then gone to the doctor’s office and been weighed on the doctor’s scale. The inaccuracy of my bathroom scale, paired with its consistency, can at least be used to establish a different standard.

Or the speed limit sign that I pass on my way to work every day, that has the little display underneath that tells me how fast I’m going in comparison to the speed limit. I’ve noticed every time I pass that thing, by looking at my own speedometer, that it measures me going faster than I actually am. In fact, it consistently says that I am going two miles-per-hour faster than what I’m actually doing. It’s inaccurate, but at least its consistently so.

Or, maybe the speedometer in my car is consistently under-measuring my speed.

When something is consistent, and we know it to be so, we come to understand it without having to compare it against an agreed-upon standard every time. Accurate or inaccurate, consistency matters.

* * *

When it comes to consistency, do you want to know what one of the most inconsistent things on the planet is?

People.

My speedometer in my car can say that I am going fifty-five miles-per-hour, and I can hear from three different people in my car that I am going 1) too fast, or 2) too slow, or 3) just right. Of course, that’s comparing people to each other, which is bound to lead to inconsistencies.

But, think about this example.

Would you rather have 1) a coworker who is a jerk every single day without fail, or 2) a coworker who is nice on some days and mean on other days? If you picked #1, then you prefer the consistency –> if that coworker was a jerk every day, then at least you would know what to expect.

Compare the number of people that you know who are inconsistent to the number of clocks that you know that are inconsistent –not, inaccurate, mind you, but inconsistent. Would you keep a clock that was running five minutes fast one day and two minutes slow the next and a half-hour fast the day after that?

No, you would not.

But inconsistency in people is tolerated all of the time. In fact, sometimes, we want people to be inconsistent.

I’m an English teacher, and if my students can’t write at the beginning of the semester, but they can at the end of the semester, then they’ve proven themselves to be inconsistent. But, I would cheer them and so would you. We call it growth, and we hope for it in people –we hope for them to be inconsistent.

When I know that my twenty-year-old microwave requires extra time to cook something, compared to what’s written on the packaging for what I’m cooking, I learn to live with that. But, if that antique contraption decides one day to start getting more effective, I am just going to be annoyed that I can’t count on it being consistently ineffective any longer.