Goodbye, Once Again, To All That

In the great scheme of things, it was a minor event, I know, but whatever is closest is also always largest, right?

Perspective is one of those magical mysteries of our lives. There is a famous writing exercise, courtesy of the late novelist John Gardner, in which you ask the student to write a description of a pond in a park.

First, write it from the point of view of a young woman who has just now been asked by her boyfriend to marry.

Then, write it from the perspective of an elderly lady, whose abusive husband has just now died.

There may be other parts of the exercise, but you take the point. I have used this, several times, with various groups, with wonderful results. How we humans view our collective reality seems highly dependent on our personal sense of where we stand in the bigger picture around us. Becoming conscious of this fact can inform our ability to create stories, drawings, paintings, music, or even (gasp) algorithms that resonate with others.

Today, I was laid off. There are sad parts to this story: I loved my job, as it was the first in my long life that allowed me to exploit both the verbal and the math parts of my brain. Up until the moment my boss called me into a conference room to tell me the sad news, I was doing my job, as I have done every day since the middle of last May.

Ironically, the last headline I ever wrote for this wonderful content site was "Remember Back When We Had Jobs?"

There must be some strange prescience that flows throw a brain like mine just as I was about to be remaindered. Now, if only I could bottle that!

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