Work, September 28, 2009: Or how "work" hospitalized a colleague

About to take off to one of the premier psychiatric hospital units in my city, to visit a colleague who recently succumbed to the pressures of a disability-serving organizational environment.

That was painful. And at this point (posting this several months later), I don't know what happened to my colleague. I do know that it was strongly indicated that the "disability serving organizational environment" we were both in at the time, turned out to be one that really wanted to serve itself, by dispensing of my colleague--or anyone else that got in the way of the comfort of the "executive staff" of that organization.

I hope: a) my colleague is alive and still remembering to be the advocate for disabled people she always had been, and b) that my theory, "There's justice in the Universe" proves to be true again here. The sickest thing about all of this was that the Executive Director of this organization we had the odd fate to share (being reunited in a common workplace after having met 20 years previously in another "common workplace"), twisted a verbal notice that this person was declaring herself disabled regarding work capacity, into a RESIGNATION NOTICE. Given that this is an amazing person who is severely cognitively disabled albeit extremely intelligent: I only pray that this organization experiences all the justice it is due, and that my friend gets all the benefit due her from that justice.

Welcome to The WildSideWalk!

Wow. I'm BLOGGING (Is that like Mary Martin--or the more recent Dorothy Hamill--yelling from the end of that hidden wire, "I'M FLYYYYYYYING!"????).

A former-boss/colleague/friend suggested that I do this, with the comment that I have "a lot to say." Then when I actually initiated the thing, the "lot to say" became an absolute daunting roadblock; due to my perfectionistic inclination--not only about writing, but about expression of thoughts--until this moment, I "THOUGHT" a great deal about writing, but always hesitated to actually sit down and do this.

I actually DO have "a lot to say," sometimes much more than is probably best for me, and certainly much more (volume) than others seem to readily handle.

There. It's DONE. The Pandora's Box has been cracked open.

You'll find that I write "a lot," about "a lot of different things." On the agenda are included:
1. Parenthood/children/being in either of those states at any given time.
2. Work: a multifaceted huge list of "topics" (read "mostly 'ISSUES'").
3. MY work, in its various forms and incarnations.
4. OTHERS' work, i.e. mostly observations and scathing criticism.
5. Psychology/mind/philosophy of mind, and sundry related subjects.
6. People in my life, who I hope/wish to share with others; some with "names changed to protect the innocent," others TOTALLY IDENTIFIED (usually because I either thought/confirmed they wouldn't mind, or because I think they "deserve to be named").
7. Art, which is an interesting topic, and BY THE WAY: WHEN YOU READ THAT WORD, WHAT DID YOU THINK OF?
8. "Pet Peeves"--based on a plethora of social/public behavior observations and experiences, there will be some portion of readers who take each one of these personally, to be sure, but far be it from this writer to shrink from a topic just because it might "affect" someone . . .
9. "Other" topics, as they may occur, be suggested, bubble up, or simply appear on the screen . . .