Today is my last day at the Nonprofit Roundtable and I find myself reflecting on the nature of transitions. I have grown to think of those I have been working with over the last two years as my work family and this transition to a new position at an organization that has only tenuous relations with those I have been working with has proved more emotional than I anticipated. In my more intellectual facet, the place to which I retreat when faced with situations like this, I have been reminded of my studies in ritual.
In a few hours, I will be participating in the time honored ritual of job transition- the going away party. I will be inundated with well-wishers and congratulations. My role in this ritual is to accept these compliments with grace and sincerity. We will all make promises to keep in touch and mean them with all our hearts, while also knowing that inevitably most of us will drift apart as our lives move in their respective directions. But that my friends, that is not what the ritual is about. The ritual is about expressing joy and sorry, about reinsuring ourselves that change is good and that things will continue to the benefit of all parties. It is about cushioning the blow of change. It is about reinforcing relationships against change in a hope to maintain against the centripetal force of divergence.
I sincerely hope to maintain all the friends I have made over the last two years, but know the glass is always full- ½ with present friends and ½ with those who absence is framed by the container of my memories.
Eric in a Word: Natiform
Book of the Day: Only Companion: Japanese Poems of Love and Longing - Sam Hamill (trans)
Song of the Day: Whorehoppin Shit Goddamn I'm a Man- Eagles of Death Metal
Sketch Medium: Computer generated drawing
2 comments:
And I thought you were just changing jobs. Not transforming the fabric of the universe in which we exist.
That was my old job, now I just sweep the floors of time...
Post a Comment