Saying Bye/Making Enemies
I found this week’s post more difficult to write than usual.
That’s partly because my usual method is to sit in class until a light goes off in there -points to brain-, jot the thought(s) down as fast as I can and then expand later.
This week?
Nothing.
I thought about doing a ‘lessons-learned’ kind of thing but I’m not sure I could write anything that hasn’t already been better-expressed here and here. I’m also not going to force reflection. Better stay quiet than say something half-assed.
So here’s a rogue thought from a few weeks ago (remember the end of this post?) I abandoned it in favor of something else that grabbed my attention at the time, but re-reading it now, I think this is a pretty fitting end:
“The burden of the public service is finding middle ground.” I heard that bit of received wisdom from a facilitator at the public consultation I had attended. Recently, I am wondering if that has ever been true or, if it has, what that says about the likelihood that I will be a public servant any time soon. A very different narrative emerges within (some) advocacy circles. There, it is unavoidable that one might make enemies, and on purpose at that.
Munk + Evergreen has made me want to make enemies.
I’ve spent the past couple of years reading about what happens to real people with real lives when you make bad policy choices but it has only ever felt like someone somewhere has made a wrong move on a board game. And that may very well be through no fault of anyone’s but my own. But this course has, at its best, made it feel like there is something at stake. For that I am thankful.
