BENEATH THE SURFACE

BENEATH THE SURFACE

BENEATH THE SURFACE

On November 20, 1980, Lake Peigneur in Louisiana looked like an ordinary lake. It was a shallow freshwater lake in Iberia Parish where people fished, boats traveled, and trees lined the shore. No one would have expected that morning looking across the water that within a few hours the lake would be completely transformed.

But underneath Lake Peigneur was something people could not see. Deep beneath the lake was a salt mine. That morning, a drilling rig operated by Wilson Brothers Corporation under contract to Texacowas drilling an exploratory well from a platform on the lake when they accidentally penetrated the roof of a salt mine deep beneath the lake. For years, miners had worked underground, carving tunnels and enormous chambers into the salt deposit below, and most people did not know what was beneath the waters. As they drilled, the opening into the salt mine grew larger as the salt dissolved in the water allowing even more water to enter. Soon, what began as a relatively small opening became something enormous. The lake began draining into the mine causing a giant whirlpool to develop. In a matter of hours, everything changed. The drilling rig disappeared. Eleven barges were swallowed. A tugboat went down. Trees disappeared. Acres of land collapsed into the water. A house and other property were lost. And the underground salt mine that had operated for decades was flooded and destroyed. Even a nearby canal reversed direction.

All of this happened because of something that had been there long before the disaster began but could not be seen by looking only at the surface.

Remember, the mine did not suddenly appear that morning. The enormous underground chambers had been there for years. Yet someone standing beside Lake Peigneur looking across the water would never have known what existed underneath. It simply looked peaceful and calm.

And that is the lesson; you never really know what is below the surface.

We make judgments every day based upon what we can see. We look at a successful organization and assume everything must be going well. Sales are good. Customers are happy. Employees are smiling. The organization is growing. From the outside, everything looks healthy.

But underneath the surface, the organization may be in disarray. Employees may be miserable. Leaders may no longer trust one another. Debt may be accumulating. Good people may be quietly preparing to leave. The numbers everyone celebrates may hide problems that eventually threaten everything that has been built.

We see it with sports teams. A team can win games while the locker room is falling apart. Players can celebrate together when the cameras are on and barely speak when the cameras are gone. A coach can tell reporters everything is fine while relationships inside the organization are deteriorating. The scoreboard tells us who won the game, but it does not necessarily tell us the condition of the team.

And then there are people. We see someone laughing and assume they are happy. We see someone joking and assume everything is fine. We see someone succeeding professionally and assume life must be good. We see the person who encourages everybody else and assume they don’t need encouragement themselves.

But sometimes the person making everybody laugh goes home hurting. Sometimes the person everybody depends upon is exhausted from always being the strong one. Sometimes a person who appears happy and carefree is privately struggling with depression, despair, or even thoughts of suicide.

A smile only tells you that someone smiled. It does not tell you what is happening underneath.

That does not mean we should become suspicious of every happy person or assume everyone is secretly struggling. It does mean we should stop believing that what we see is necessarily all there is.

Many people have issues beneath the surface. There are disappointments they don’t discuss. There are financial problems nobody knows about. There are marriages struggling behind smiling family photographs. There are children carrying pressure their parents do not recognize. There are employees who say everything is fine because they are afraid of what will happen if they tell the truth. There are leaders carrying burdens they do not know how to share. There are people grieving losses they never mention. There are people fighting battles that have never made it to the surface.

Our world has become very good at managing appearances. We know how to smile for the picture, give the right answer, post the accomplishment, celebrate the victory, and tell everybody we’re doing great. We can become so good at managing what other people see that nobody ever thinks to ask what is happening underneath. No one seems to ask the pertinent penetrating question, “How are you really?” Sometimes people do not need us to fix their problems. They simply need to know there is someone with whom they do not have to pretend.

People may manage the surface but that never changes what is below it. Do not wait until everything begins collapsing before you tell somebody. There is strength in saying, “I’m struggling.” There is courage in saying, “I need help.” There is wisdom in allowing someone you trust to see what is happening beneath the surface.

Lake Peigneur teaches us an unforgettable lesson. What we can see may not be the whole reality.

So, this week, look a little deeper. Ask another question. Listen a little longer. Pay attention to what isn’t being said. Never assume you know the whole story simply because you can see the surface.

Remember, sometimes what matters most is what you cannot see.

–Dan Summerlin