Signs at work & the juggling act

[Melissa Hunter-Kilmer <mhunterk -at- BNA -dot- COM>]

First off, my favorite sign at work: "The person who says it
cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it."  I am
told that it is a Chinese proverb.

Secondly, WRT the juggling act, I am reminded of -- oh, shoot, my
buffer has blown -- Robert Frost?

"But yield who will to their separation,
My object in living is to unite
My avocation and my vocation,
As my two eyes are one in sight."

Also, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  I
learned a great deal from my father, who had an enormously
rewarding career with the military.  He was a career officer and
served for 30 years, until he was forcibly retired.  During that
time, he worked maybe 50 to 80 hours a week every week that he
wasn't on leave.  When he wasn't working, he was at parties,
which were still work -- they were all about his career.

(Stay with me, guys.  This _is_ relevant.)

I have three siblings.  None of us had significant time with our
father.  I avoided him as much as I could.  He did not know how
to be a father; he knew how to be a boss.  He had put almost all
his energy into his career so that practically nothing was left
over.  Now, 25 years after his separation from the military, he's
finally discovering what he missed, and in some cases it is too
late to make up for lost time.

At the end of his military career, when Dad was still rarin' to
go, the Army gave him all kinds of plaques, a pension, great
benefits, and the old heave-ho.  Dad had been defined by his
work, and suddenly he was a person with no definition.  Thus I
learned never to love anything that cannot or will not love me
back.

I work at my job, but it's already demonstrated that it will
never love me back.  My real energies go to my treasures: my
family and my faith.  Putting too much energy into my work would
be like juggling with knives -- it can be done, but I can't and
don't want to do it.  And doing it would not really help my
company (which reminded us again recently that it can and does
read our e-mail), because I would not then be able to give my
company the benefit of my experience as a whole person.

Now I need to figure out how to keep my saw sharpened.  I am
re-evaluating exactly how I need to do this (thanks, Julia!).

Gee, I may have strayed too far afield from the original topic.
Oh, well, that's the way it goes sometimes.

Melissa Hunter-Kilmer
mhunterk -at- bna -dot- com
(standard disclaimer)

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