For most Americans, it's two days before Thanksgiving, and the holiday madness is just on the cusp of coming into full swing. There are those who start at Halloween, but there is no one who can deny that certainly once we hit Thanksgiving, we are in "the holiday season."
As it seems to often happen in my life, I'm often in this situation: I'm the one throwing the party or organizing the event that everyone is just now getting to. So they are like, wow, a lot is going on, and I'm like, yes, and it's been going on for a LONG time, where have you been? When I was opening stores (I work for organic grocers: we open lots of stores), I had to start way before anyone but the construction people. At four months out, it would just be me and the main store leadership person, scouting sites for the job fairs (Reno was especially fun, going through casinos as a business patron) and getting everything set up for everyone *else* to come in. You know, I'm there before the temp office....and by the time everyone shows up to open the stores one month out, to get it stocked and staffed, I'm like, finally! It fact it would so happen that my work life would go like this: I'd be worried about Store A, and then when everyone else was discussing Store A, I'd have moved on to B. Once "B's coming up soon" was the talk around the figurative water cooler, I, and I alone, would be knee deep in C by then.
This is fine - even fun. It's fun to plan things for people and fun to have them show up (and enjoy it), whether it's a team build or an orientation or an all-day training or a gala opening event or a volunteer day or a potluck or a gift swap or just drinks (and I have planned each of these events for large groups at works). It's fun when other people finally start to get on board, and momentum builds, and we collaborate, and we achieve together and are proud.
Thanksgiving is like that for my company, and it's one of the most rewarding and stressful things about my work. I love the holidays and yet I dread (a little) the holidays. The hours are long. There's no way to really get out of that one. The customers can be crusty....supplies unexpectedly short due to weather or some other uncontrollable factor (no crab *this* Thanksgiving! Sorry)....and something is bound to go wrong. This time, it was our online commerce system that hit a snag (operationally annoying - crucial without ever being really threatening) and it required some deep thought and quick action, which, corporation-wise, can pose a challenge. It's hard to turn a big ship...and this time, I felt like I was one of the crew.
We've been planning for "the holidays" since...oh...July or August, I think, and now I am feeling that familiar sensation of everyone else catching up with me. The holidays, so long anticipated, are finally here! It's been such a huge focus, professionally, and we're moving through it. And - we're doing OK. Could be better, could be worse. Business is great. The stores are doing great. Just a little behind-the-scenes kerfuffle. It happens. It's a big ship.
And there's lots of opportunity...opportunity for love, for fun, for humor, for connection, for meaning-making. People are working together under stress, and they are triumphing - really, our teams really can throw a good holiday shopping experience. It's all ripe for delight, and so of course I love it. And all in all, it's been pretty good. Sure, stress and system issues and miscommunication (my favorite thing of all, since I am responsible for the communication) and hiccups.
But ALSO laughter and kindness and good humor and sacrifice and generosity. Some good work gets done. Some happiness manifested. A ton of turkeys sold. And, just like the woman who swam the English Channel in the 70's, I maintain it's all about the emergence. The last mile, the crowds cheering you on, and the eventual emergence. Thanksgiving is our emergence.
Last night, I experienced some extreme kindness. After a 12 hour day, I had to get some food, so I stopped by a city store, late - it was 8:30. I was tired, distracted, and when I unloaded my basket, I set it on the belt, but it was unstable, and tipped, a few items fell, including my tub of fresh mushroom soup, which made a nasty spill on the floor for tired and drained Team Members to clean up. I felt awful. "I am so sorry," I said.
But no. No, they said, it's OK. I said I was a Team Member, I should not be making things worse. "Team Members can make mistakes," they said. They reassured me. They joked with me. They treated me with special kindness. They were wonderful. They loaded my groceries in my reusable sling bag and held it out to me for my shoulder like the way a gentleman holds a coat for a lady. It was really kind. It totally moved me. The end of one of the busiest days of the year in a busy store and they were almost HAPPY about the spilled mushroom soup because it gave them an opportunity to be gracious.
That's what I am talking about.
And naturally, I began to look at my internal, personal world and see how what I am experiencing is also reflected in the story of the day; what are the mythic threads of now, either my own or those of the bigger collective? People coming together. People finally getting on board with something that I've been working on for a long time. The experience of "Finally! I am so glad to see you!." The connection that precedes progress.
Which made me think of this: a friend of mine just posted on Google Plus something about how he finally understands what Occupy Everywhere is about. It's not about any particular demand, but the right to protest, to say no - and the more we are stopped from doing so, the more we will want to. The right to say "We're sick of it."
And that is, in fact, part of what it is becoming. I keep working with this idea (so bear with my repitition as I refine it), and my response to my friend was this:
"That is in part correct. The way I have been looking at it is this: There are rules to the game. You can only take so much, or the game is over. They took too much. The game is over. We need to collect all the "money" (it's just like Monopoly) and re-deal. Start over. The fact that they WON'T ADMIT the game is over - WON'T ADMIT they went too far...well, that is what Occupy is about."
As to the notion that the movement is somehow invalid at worst and lame at best because they don't - or haven't voiced - any particular "demands," that's silly. People have said what's the message is - it's self-evident. It's like the civil rights movement, in which they wanted...you know...civil rights. They didn't need to come up with some giant collective "demand" with particular talking points - it was obvious. People wanted their civil rights.
It's obvious now: we want to occupy. We want to be able to live here, to occupy out our country again. And we can't. People can't afford to live. We can't buy homes. We can't get jobs. We can't get health care. We are "occupying" Wall Street because - this is the point - it's about having, on the most basic level, a place to love. We have to live somewhere, and so we will live here. We have a *right* to live here. We can't get kicked out of our homes - kicked out of our *lives* - more and more every day - just because the 1% want to live here, exclusively, to own it all, and to gradually keep taking more and more of it away from us.
We the people are occupied by the 1%, and we don't want to be. We want to end the last vestiges of colonialism everywhere by taking back our land - by occupying it. We DO live here. And there are more of us then there are of them - there are 99 of us for every 1 of them.
And the great thing is - it's just like my job. It doesn't have to be adversarial. We can get along. We can get through the holidays together. We can get through this bump, this spot of American, global, human trouble. That's what *I* am going to be thankful about this holiday - the fact that the people have finally figured out what to do, and are doing it, for the good of all - including, especially the 1%. Because be you occupied or occupier - I think it's obvious no one is really have much fun doing it anymore.
As it seems to often happen in my life, I'm often in this situation: I'm the one throwing the party or organizing the event that everyone is just now getting to. So they are like, wow, a lot is going on, and I'm like, yes, and it's been going on for a LONG time, where have you been? When I was opening stores (I work for organic grocers: we open lots of stores), I had to start way before anyone but the construction people. At four months out, it would just be me and the main store leadership person, scouting sites for the job fairs (Reno was especially fun, going through casinos as a business patron) and getting everything set up for everyone *else* to come in. You know, I'm there before the temp office....and by the time everyone shows up to open the stores one month out, to get it stocked and staffed, I'm like, finally! It fact it would so happen that my work life would go like this: I'd be worried about Store A, and then when everyone else was discussing Store A, I'd have moved on to B. Once "B's coming up soon" was the talk around the figurative water cooler, I, and I alone, would be knee deep in C by then.
This is fine - even fun. It's fun to plan things for people and fun to have them show up (and enjoy it), whether it's a team build or an orientation or an all-day training or a gala opening event or a volunteer day or a potluck or a gift swap or just drinks (and I have planned each of these events for large groups at works). It's fun when other people finally start to get on board, and momentum builds, and we collaborate, and we achieve together and are proud.
Thanksgiving is like that for my company, and it's one of the most rewarding and stressful things about my work. I love the holidays and yet I dread (a little) the holidays. The hours are long. There's no way to really get out of that one. The customers can be crusty....supplies unexpectedly short due to weather or some other uncontrollable factor (no crab *this* Thanksgiving! Sorry)....and something is bound to go wrong. This time, it was our online commerce system that hit a snag (operationally annoying - crucial without ever being really threatening) and it required some deep thought and quick action, which, corporation-wise, can pose a challenge. It's hard to turn a big ship...and this time, I felt like I was one of the crew.
We've been planning for "the holidays" since...oh...July or August, I think, and now I am feeling that familiar sensation of everyone else catching up with me. The holidays, so long anticipated, are finally here! It's been such a huge focus, professionally, and we're moving through it. And - we're doing OK. Could be better, could be worse. Business is great. The stores are doing great. Just a little behind-the-scenes kerfuffle. It happens. It's a big ship.
And there's lots of opportunity...opportunity for love, for fun, for humor, for connection, for meaning-making. People are working together under stress, and they are triumphing - really, our teams really can throw a good holiday shopping experience. It's all ripe for delight, and so of course I love it. And all in all, it's been pretty good. Sure, stress and system issues and miscommunication (my favorite thing of all, since I am responsible for the communication) and hiccups.
But ALSO laughter and kindness and good humor and sacrifice and generosity. Some good work gets done. Some happiness manifested. A ton of turkeys sold. And, just like the woman who swam the English Channel in the 70's, I maintain it's all about the emergence. The last mile, the crowds cheering you on, and the eventual emergence. Thanksgiving is our emergence.
Last night, I experienced some extreme kindness. After a 12 hour day, I had to get some food, so I stopped by a city store, late - it was 8:30. I was tired, distracted, and when I unloaded my basket, I set it on the belt, but it was unstable, and tipped, a few items fell, including my tub of fresh mushroom soup, which made a nasty spill on the floor for tired and drained Team Members to clean up. I felt awful. "I am so sorry," I said.
But no. No, they said, it's OK. I said I was a Team Member, I should not be making things worse. "Team Members can make mistakes," they said. They reassured me. They joked with me. They treated me with special kindness. They were wonderful. They loaded my groceries in my reusable sling bag and held it out to me for my shoulder like the way a gentleman holds a coat for a lady. It was really kind. It totally moved me. The end of one of the busiest days of the year in a busy store and they were almost HAPPY about the spilled mushroom soup because it gave them an opportunity to be gracious.
That's what I am talking about.
And naturally, I began to look at my internal, personal world and see how what I am experiencing is also reflected in the story of the day; what are the mythic threads of now, either my own or those of the bigger collective? People coming together. People finally getting on board with something that I've been working on for a long time. The experience of "Finally! I am so glad to see you!." The connection that precedes progress.
Which made me think of this: a friend of mine just posted on Google Plus something about how he finally understands what Occupy Everywhere is about. It's not about any particular demand, but the right to protest, to say no - and the more we are stopped from doing so, the more we will want to. The right to say "We're sick of it."
And that is, in fact, part of what it is becoming. I keep working with this idea (so bear with my repitition as I refine it), and my response to my friend was this:
"That is in part correct. The way I have been looking at it is this: There are rules to the game. You can only take so much, or the game is over. They took too much. The game is over. We need to collect all the "money" (it's just like Monopoly) and re-deal. Start over. The fact that they WON'T ADMIT the game is over - WON'T ADMIT they went too far...well, that is what Occupy is about."
As to the notion that the movement is somehow invalid at worst and lame at best because they don't - or haven't voiced - any particular "demands," that's silly. People have said what's the message is - it's self-evident. It's like the civil rights movement, in which they wanted...you know...civil rights. They didn't need to come up with some giant collective "demand" with particular talking points - it was obvious. People wanted their civil rights.
It's obvious now: we want to occupy. We want to be able to live here, to occupy out our country again. And we can't. People can't afford to live. We can't buy homes. We can't get jobs. We can't get health care. We are "occupying" Wall Street because - this is the point - it's about having, on the most basic level, a place to love. We have to live somewhere, and so we will live here. We have a *right* to live here. We can't get kicked out of our homes - kicked out of our *lives* - more and more every day - just because the 1% want to live here, exclusively, to own it all, and to gradually keep taking more and more of it away from us.
We the people are occupied by the 1%, and we don't want to be. We want to end the last vestiges of colonialism everywhere by taking back our land - by occupying it. We DO live here. And there are more of us then there are of them - there are 99 of us for every 1 of them.
And the great thing is - it's just like my job. It doesn't have to be adversarial. We can get along. We can get through the holidays together. We can get through this bump, this spot of American, global, human trouble. That's what *I* am going to be thankful about this holiday - the fact that the people have finally figured out what to do, and are doing it, for the good of all - including, especially the 1%. Because be you occupied or occupier - I think it's obvious no one is really have much fun doing it anymore.
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