Yesterday, I scribbled up a long story about my screwing up my phone and having a lot of fun with my own oddity. While that was good material to pick on me about, it doesn’t encapsulate two bad things I experienced yesterday that continue to be stuck in my brain.
I was sitting at my desk – working – when a guy walked by and said “Tony, my name is Bob and I need you to come to another area of the building. I have Mike in a conference and we need to discuss something with you.” (all those names are fake). Tony got up and left. The next thing I heard was Mike putting stuff in a box while Bob held a UPS Overnite envelope. I’m not a fossil, but I’ve danced that dance before. Tony left. He’s done working for my employer. Truth be told, I don’t even like Tony very much, but today I am very sad for him. AT&T, MCI, Spherion, Volt, Borland and a few other companies along the line have done the same to me. It’s absolutely the crappiest feeling. Your former co-workers have no idea what to say. Your future is flashing in front of you. You don’t know if you should just leave all your crap, do you clean up, do you call your wife, do you yell and scream, do you kick the wall? All of these things go through your head. Sitting near by – you think “Am I next?”. Ugh… this economy just sucks.
Moving on to things that also suck – Sarah’s company is going through a similar situation. I hope and pray she is okay and have reason to believe she is, but we will see. One thing is for certain; some of her coworkers will have a similar visit from “Bob”. Yesterday was Sarah’s Christmas party at work. This is a yearly event (go figure) that I attend and get to eat some decent food and listen to her upper management summarize the state of the company, the project and any other thing they chose to tell you about. I’ve always thought it was a little odd that they discuss how much money their company made at the Christmas party – making it a virtual all hands meeting, with guests… but hey, Sarah wants me to go and I like to eat. It’s not too bad. Well – maybe it is? About 1/2 way through the presentation yesterday, a woman (I don’t know her – so I wont even give her a fictional name) stood up and quite bluntly explained to the guy giving the presentation – It was HER time, she didn’t want to hear anybody talk about business and a bunch of other stuff. You know you are about to hear something rude when you hear “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but….” If you need more on that – watch Talladega Nights – The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Anyway – the thing was – she just said what every person in the room was thinking deep down in their inner bits. In a perfect world where your job was secure – you would be willing to listen to the guy talk before you ate. In this world… maybe not so much. For this woman – something broke the camels back.
While the “I cant believe it” comedic value of this woman’s actions to this minute amaze me – my heart also goes out to her and Mike. Regardless of how much we have in life, we all have our struggles – and to us, those struggles are hard. They eat us up inside. To some, my problems seem trivial. To me – yours may seem easy to sort out – but that is why mine are mine and yours are yours. I don’t always do well with my problems. I get wrapped around my axles and screw up, but today I will keep on trying. I have hope. Elizabeth Edwards certainly had her fair share of crap thrown at her in her life. In her last days, she wrote this on her facebook page:
We know that. And yes, there are certainly times when we aren’t able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It’s called being human. But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful.
I’m not sure why I heard that. Why it hit me so hard when I heard it. I really don’t know … I don’t really even know much about Elizabeth Edwards – other than she was smiling days before she died of Cancer. If SHE can have hope – I think any of can.
Today – try to live with a little hope! Hope our kids will listen, hope your sports team wins, hope you find enough strength to go shopping for Christmas, hope you family is well… Find some hope! I think I’m going to try to coordinate a trip downtown for Street Reach tonight. Maybe Derek and I can bring a little hope to some people who desperately need it!