We are Kindred
DRACULA: You are magnificent.
BUFFY: I bet you say that before you bite all the girls.
DRACULA: No, you are different. Kindred.
BUFFY: Kindred? Hardly, I-
Buffy is one of my favourite shows. For some reason I can watch it over and over again. One of the greatest scenes is when Dracula wafts into the room with “music video wind” and speaks of some kind of attraction as kindred. Kindred spirits. A group of related persons.
I wonder if people who work in the same field as each other naturally feel an affinity to their co-workers? Is there a deep understanding that our heart and soul is crafted from the same matter, the same stuff, the same grit?
I get this feeling working on large projects with a vast number of engineers, scientists and technicians that we’re all similar in the way that we understand the world as it is, and as it should be. We seem to be pragmatic realists, but very rarely do we bare our teeth and fight for our beliefs. In recent history scientists have banded together and signed statements aimed at their governments to act not as politicians satisfying a corporate agenda, but as human beings, caretakers of our very earth.
In some cases, we work on projects where there are obvious ‘best for community’ outcomes but due to some fine print in contract documents, oversight by department representative things get missed. The end result is meaningless series of soft hitting dodgeball, where the end-game is obvious win for all, but the time taken to get to that point has sucked the life blood from its victims…the very folk who started their career with dreams of immortality having built great monuments and roads paved with gold.
In a perfect world, Dracula would not survive, our life blood is endlessly revived in the knowing that we have delivered a project that provides benefits to the company as well as the community. We, as engineers, scientists and technicians are Kindred. We do care. We just don’t like playing games.
Thanks for reading my thoughts on the world, and if you liked this story please consider sharing and start a conversation. Also, let me know by clicking the little love heart. Mark@theSmart.io
