Who Will Be There?

You’ve been invited to a party.  Maybe it’s a holiday celebration of some sort.  Maybe it’s a formal dinner.  There’s a part of you that wants to say, “Yes”.  And yet, there’s hesitancy as well.

On our way to a decision, many of us make up our minds by asking, “Who is going to be there?”

Most of us want to be comfortable and accepted.  Most of us want to know that there are people attending that we know.  There are commonalities.  There is shared history.  They are like us.

This eliminates that need to ‘mingle’ with those we don’t know.  We’re not totally against mingling, but it’s almost like the first time we ventured into water that was over our heads.  We needed to know that touching the bottom would be possible with only a feeble stride or two.  Solid ground is within reach.

I wonder about our reluctance, though.  What opportunity might present itself to us and others should we decline the invitation due to mingle-fear?

Two considerations:

Justice Served

A car on the 65 miles-per-hour freeway blows past as if you were walking.  Weaving in and out of traffic you lose sight of him.  Three miles down the road, flashing blue and red lights allow you to see the culprit sitting on the side of the road, window down while a trooper is furiously writing in a ticket-book.

It’s over, the final exam complete.  Across the aisle, sits that one guy who has copied and plagiarized his way through assignments and weekly lectures, assuming he showed up at all.  But, the final was a surprise.  It wasn’t a memory test at all – it was an essay.  If you didn’t know the concepts, you weren’t going to pass.  The slacker didn’t know the concepts.

A co-worker, recognized as being very political, throws people under the bus in a manner less hobby than business strategy.  She’s successfully crawled up the ladder with innuendo, misinformation and manipulation.  When they announce the new Vice-president of sales, you expect to hear her name – that’s just the way things happen.  But today, this position has been filled by someone you know to be a person of honor and integrity with a deep seated attitude of caring. Smugly, you look across the room at your co-worker.  That look on her face?  Priceless!

By Virtue of That Bond

Designated Survivor 
Season 2, Episode 1: “One Year In”

Catastrophe averted.
Hard work praised.
President Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland) addresses his staff.

"Everyone, if I could just have your attention, please.
I just wanted to take a moment and thank you for your hard work today.
We managed to avoid an international crisis, and we saved a lot of lives.

But I, uh, I didn't get everyone home, though.

As some of you might know already, I had a friend on that plane, one of the two people who were killed. He dedicated his life to helping other people. Not for fortune or fame, but because whenever he saw pain, he would have to do whatever he could to try and ease it.