11:07 p.m. - 2002-11-04
Deja vu
I have been thinking of Ken Taylor a lot the past year. He attended the same high school as my parents but was a few grades behind them, according to my Dad. When he finished school he joined the Canadian diplomatic corps. Twenty three years ago today he was the Canadian ambassador to Iran. On this day in 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini seized the American embassy and took the American staff hostage. He wanted the US to return the former Shah - Mohammed Reza Pahlavi - to Iran for criminal prosecution in exchange for their release. Meanwhile, several other Americans sought and received sanctuary at the Canadian embassy. When it was safe to do so, Mr Taylor and his staff smuggled those Americans out of Iran. When he returned home to Calgary I know he did the "rubber chicken" circuit for a while, talking about his experiences, then he quietly faded back into diplomatic anonimity. In the past year I have often wondered where he and the other people caught up in that firestorm are now. Even moreso, I wonder what they would have to say about the current situation. I think it would be worth hearing.
I still haven't been called back to the contract I was working on. Based on my supervisor's phone calls, it appears negotiations are still occurring. However, I can't let my family's welfare hang on the word of a person who has demonstrated the behavior of that company's liaison so I sent out my first resume today. Sigh.
I didn't really want to go this route. This assignment has been very challenging both personnel wise and also because the day to day routine has been drowned in deadly, endless detail. I can sustain that type of work for a long time if I can see value arising from it, but that has been missing from this assignment for several months now as the work we have done has been smothered/buried. Some days it has been very hard to get out of bed to face another day of futility. On the other hand, in the ten years I have been working in this industry I have yet to find a supervisor anywhere near as good as the one I have now. The training I have received both in doing my work more efficiently and in how to be a better manager myself -by observing my supervisor in action - when looking after the elections contract are priceless. In addition, I have felt safe, valued, and respected - something that is very rare in my experience in this industry. It's hard to walk away from someone who has been such a strong mentor. On the other hand, I'm sure I've driven him crazy sometimes, so maybe it's time to let him off the hook. I don't know what other options there are. My guys and I need to have some physical security.
There are a lot of ads out there for a variety of work. Sometimes the apparent range of choice seems a little overwhelming. I came across one job I would love to have. It's for mapping using GPS technology. I love maps. In both my Federal and local contracts, working with and generating new material by computer is one of my favorite things to do. The only training I've had, mind you, is what I've received on the job. However, the ad indicated that the ability to learn quickly was as important as any previous education. The one drawback was that it would mean moving across the country. As I've noted before, I'm willing to travel for limited amounts of time right now, but leaving the support network of family and friends while some of my guys are still growing isn't reasonable because of what I learned through my volunteer experiences. Since 30% of the families in my community were single parent families, what I spent most of my volunteer time doing was trying to ensure their children didn't lose ground. One of the strongest predictors of how the children would cope was how strong a sense of belonging and continuity the remaining parent could maintain for their kids. When you think about it, most children not only lose the one parent who moves away but they also "lose" the remaining parent as their role changes/expands to breadwinner as well as caregiver; they often lose their home, their school, their teachers, their friends and some of the people they thought were family. It is those cumulative losses that often are the underlying cause of a lot of the children's later difficulties. My sons need the stability of a strong support network for at least another three or four years - then we'll see. In the meantime, maybe I can find some courses locally that will make that kind of job change possible when I'm ready. Of course..... I've always wanted to work in the alternative medicine field, and I'd love to have a proper English herb garden, then there's the environmental work I mentioned before and astrophysics (new faculty here) ...... I think I'm glad I've got a few more years to pick up some classes before I have to decide. Right now though, I need to find a way to make it through the next few months. Everything happens a certain way for a reason I guess. Wish I knew what that reason was.
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