Sat Schtuff

Today I went to a color guard event that my daughter is in. It was .... uneventful. Okay, it was downright dull. I intended to stay the whole time, but when I found that her group's routine (which I knew would be less than ten minutes long) was in fact more on the order of three minutes (and thats being generous), I decided to bag it shortly thereafter. Not to say that there were not truly talented groups, or that it wasn't fun simply to stand and listen to the drum lines practicing their stuff in the hallways (halls with metal lockers make excellent sound tubes), but after a while, I just wanted OUT of there. Partially, too, was that I was put off by the amateurish style of how the local parent group was running things. I ALWAYS think that I could do better. There is absolutely no proof of this; I simply believe it.

Its like my belief that organizations would be better places if they spent more time cherishing their employees. (I know; cherishing? Its the best way I could think of to say 'appreciating, encouraging, valuing, helping to grow....) Do I know this? Hell, no. But I believe it. I don't think companies feel this way, at least, the ones over, say, about a thousand or so employees. As I said, I know mine doesn't, and I know that the place where I used to work doesn't, either. Both used to -- I know this for sure on the old place, and I'm told it was true here, too. Actually, I'm told it IS true here, but I don't see it, and I don't think so -- but that gave me an insight. I think that both organizations used to cherish their employees, years ago, and the people who are running the place now, assuming they were in the organizations back then, think its still true. They act as if it is; they think it is; they might even be treating their own directly-reporting employees that way. But whether they are or not, by the time the corporate this that and th'other gets trickled down to the grunt level (mine; as distinct from the operator level, which is subgrunt), its been leeched of whatever humanistic qualities it had. The aroma is still there; the content is gone.

It is my great conceit that I can do something about this. I know that I cannot; yet I beat myself up because I can't think of a way, not one way, to make it better. In a way, its like an article I read in the Mensa journal, back when I was a member, entitled 'If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" My variant of it goes "If you're so smart, why can't you fix this problem?" Because clearly its possible -- people are written up all the time for coming up with innovative solutions, fresh ideas, forceful insights. But me? Not a dammed one. I must be pretty lame, not to have even one.

So thats my Saturday schtuff.