Murphy's Law

I cannot let Mad March go by without mentioning Murphy’s Law – commonly used to blame anything that goes wrong.

What Murphy’s Law really means

Although similar sentiments have been expressed right back to the 1800s, the name Murphy’s Law  arises from physics and is attributed to Edward Murphy who reputedly, in the 1950s, developed new measurement devices that failed to perform, and then said something like “If there’s more than one way to do a job, and one of those ways will result in disaster, then he will do it that way”. However there is some debate about its origins and, over time, it has come to mean that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, or to quote Colonel Stapp (who supposedly first publicly coined the phrase) “Everything that can possibly go wrong will go wrong”.

Murphy in the workplace

In my workplace I would blame Murphy when:

• I would put extra preparation into a client session and they would subsequently fail to attend.
• I had spent many hours preparing a group session or talk and it was cancelled at the last minute.
• I would drag myself into work when feeling unwell, as I was concerned about a particular client, and then they would be a no show.
• The computer was down on the last day that statistics were due.
• The printer would not work when I needed to copy handouts for a session later that day.
• Clients urgently begged for appointments and then did not present .

On what occasions would you like to blame Murphy’s Law?

The usefulness of Murphy’s Law

Metaphorically blaming Murphy can inject humour and take the sting out of an otherwise stressful situation. There is a Murphy’s Law café in Darwin which could result in an interesting dining experience (I chose not to test it out) and the term is often used in a humorous context.

It also reminds us that life is full of unpredictability and that we need to allow for things to not go as planned.

But, of course, when I went to add this post, the internet was down and my husband had to use his phone to create a hot spot!

And then there is Yhprum’s Law, which is that:”anything that can go right will go right” and is Murphy’s Law in reverse. 

A journey to the southernmost tip of Australia (a metaphor for "rock bottom")

Come along on another armchair travel adventure where we will stretch our legs for a total of 15.4 kms (and the first 7.7 kms of the South Coast Track).

Our trek begins at Cockle Creek in Tasmania – the furthest south that we can drive by road. We commence our walk by following  the side of a spur along a rocky, muddy track (with occasional bridges and short sections of board walk), and through forest under-storied by Spear grass. Here we try to avoid stepping in the patches of black mud.

We descend to a series of Button Grass plains and then walk along kilometres of wooden board walks as we cross them. Here we can see La Perouse Peak and another unidentified snow streaked peak behind it, when it appears between the racing clouds (it is winter – which means that we don’t need to worry about encountering any Tiger Snakes).

Finally we reach the World Heritage Area and follow a fern-lined creek set in a rainforest which, to our tired feet, seems to go on forever.

Then we emerge quite suddenly onto a huge black sloping rock platform edged with eroding cliffs and amazing views to South East Cape on one side, and further around the remote rugged wilderness coast to the west. The wild ocean casts waves onto the rocky shore way below us to our west, and the whole desolate scene gives an impression of what “rock bottom” might feel like (and creates a huge adrenalin rush).

After a rest, and exploration (we find a makeshift sign proclaiming that we are at the southernmost tip of Australia, even although technically the inaccessible South-East Cape is – but we do have views of this Cape from our rock platform) and some refreshment, we use the adrenalin rush for energy to begin the 7.7 km trek back along the way we have come. Like-wise, when we hit “rock bottom” the only place we can go is up.

As we drive back north from Cockle Creek we can finally rest our weary legs and aching bones and revel in a huge sense of achievement, enjoying the sunset tinted clouds (at 4.30 p.m.) as we bounce back over a rough gravel road to Lune River (the way up from “rock bottom” tends to be rough at first), before the tar gives us a smoother ride.