Wandering Without a Leash
High Above Paducah, KY
June 1, 2018
Prior to my last email, I don’t recall (or was oblivious to) offending anyone for quite some time. At least not seriously, and certainly not intentionally.
These notes usually generate a handful of responses, letting me know they were received and (ostensibly) appreciated.
My last missive, like a vulgar comedian at a rest home, elicited an uncomfortable silence…implying awkward cringing and justifiable offense.
I imagine most recipients greeted it as they might a coiled rattlesnake in a Parisian plaza…brought up short, they wondered how it got there, looked it over with perplexed curiosity, realized they wanted nothing to do with it, slowly turned…and ran away.
So…after digging, and stumbling into, my own pothole last week, today I return to firmer ground…
Up in the air!
From here we can expand our perspective, focus our introspection…or simply get lost in the clouds.
Glancing thru our aerial porthole, we can let our imagination run. Like a dog off its leash, it sometimes needs to exhaust itself. Otherwise, it may grow restless…and reckless.
Of course, it may trespass onto untended mental terrain, leaving unwelcome thought-droppings while becoming infested with the fleas of wild ideas or the ticks of untamed idiocy.
With enough scratching, these pesky notions are thrown off…coalescing into emails such as this, and contaminating your inboxes with the persistence of Banquo’s ghost.
Why not confine my mind’s wandering beast to its kennel, slap a muzzle on it, and spare others it’s rampages and it’s yelping?
I don’t know.
Maybe it’s presumptive arrogance…possibly it is a cry for help.
Perhaps, like a cat’s paw in wet cement, it is to randomly record that something, however inconsequential, passed this way on this day.
This week’s imprint came from the anticipated arrival of a promotion to lead our global organization.
As if waiting expectantly for a delayed flight, I finally heard the announcement touch down. It soon emerged from the gangway, and peered around.
It smiled as our eyes seemed to lock. It then ran my direction, opened wide its arms…and knocked me over to hug the person I had not realized was standing beside me.
As they walked off arm-in-arm, I sat alone…knowing that I must soon run after them to carry their bags, arrange transportation, and ensure safe navigation to where they need to go.
Meanwhile, I wanted to give them a moment, take a few for myself…and to share this one with each of you.
Disappointments, like grains of sand in an oyster, can with time become pearls of insight or opportunity. Our task is to notice and extract them.
In any event, a promotion, or even a career, is only the tail…and, for all its vigorous wagging, an ephemeral one.
The dog is the respect, love, prospects, and company of our immediate and extended families – those of us on this email – who may push when needed and jostle when appropriate, but who try not to knock each other over in the process.
It is to its rambunctious, spirited, and reliable kennel that I routinely resort for the vicarious comfort and accompaniment these feeble notes strive to enable…always keeping the muzzle close at hand.
JD
