Monday, August 23, 2010

a new dawn

235:365 golden autumn morning

i find myself increasingly bewildered by the corporate landscape in which i find myself these days. i remember when i first entered corporate life a decade ago, i was struck by how much more postmodern it was than i expected it to be. virtual teams and dotted reporting lines were far more removed from reality than i had expected. from the warm cocoon of my graduate studies, i thought somehow business was all about reality and the postmodern social and literary theory i had studied would be of no use to me. oh how i little i knew...

but now i have entered a world where things are ever more protracted from reality: forms without purpose, incomprehensible and ever-changing organizational charts, IT systems where apparently no one considered that actual humans might be using them, and a language that is ostensibly english, but at the same time not and don't even get me started about people crying in meetings. i find myself in this web of artificial structures held up by thin air. and i wonder when it will all come crashing down and what that will look like and whether i'll be able to stand clear of the rubble.

but then, i get up in the morning and i look out upon a world where dew glitters in the light of the rising sun and i realize that the webs that matter are there, in the garden, glowing in the morning light, constructed by spiders which had a purpose in doing so. and somehow, i can face the week.

the tangled web we weave


Marie said...

Nature always has a way of bringing things back to center.

I work in higher ed which, in my idealistic mind, would be far removed from the insanity of the corporate world. Yet, sadly, it is not.

Thank goodness for the squirrel on my deck this morning, reminding me that life really is filled with simple joys and the rest doesn't really matter.

will said...

Maybe. However, down in grasses it's a bug eat bug world which is much more brutal than the corp suit world. Just pray the suits never learn from the bugs!

And really, is there any real difference between corp-speak and bug-speak?

Sandra said...

I have never worked in the corporate world. I think that very often the work-a-day person is a bug waiting to be eaten.

Beautiful photos.

Gwen said...

People cry in meetings? Will you please snap a picture of that next time (hint: use your iPhone)? Because that is too too fantastic.

Indiri Wood said...

I work for a corporation like you described. It makes me a little sad, like my soul is being sucked out in tiny incremental pieces. Especially in the cubicle farm... Sigh.

But yes, photos like your first one there and other lovely things certainly do help make it a little easier to take. Though hopefully my escape is coming. :)

Char said...

there are days that another form to fill out slays me...and there are days i think i make head way. hopefully this week is the headway week.

Kristina said...

Beautiful photos and yes to everything you said!!
Since I started working in the city in a kind of corporate environment I have often wondered when my co-workers and my boss will ever stop to think and realize what really matters in life and appreciate it.
Sure I get worked up about stuff too but I feel I can leave it behind more easily as I walk out the door in the evening because I know in my heart it doesn't matter to me... What matters is the beauty and wonder of simple things like dew drops and spider webs and being with my family and friends and my horse and my cats. Those things are more real to me than anything happening at work could ever be.

Elizabeth said...

A great post... don't you always sort of feel like Nature is out there in a kind of frozen time and space saying "Hey morons, just look up for a minute, would you???"

Bee said...

I'm a little bit freaked out by your description of "the office." It sounds horrific.

We just got back from Wales, where we stayed in some cottages owned by a couple (mid-40ish, I would say) who opted out of the expat rat-race. I don't think that I could live in the deep deep country, but in many ways that notion appeals to me.