Manager Wanted

If we listen carefully to how a person responds to a simple greeting, it tells us a whole lot about that person. An unconsciousness and seemingly innocent response is the window into a person’s psyche; who the person really is—his soul.

For instance, you see an old acquaintance, Joe.

“How ya doin’, Joe?”

“I’m managin’.”

It sounds sort of lame. It almost sounds like Joe ain’t doin’ so good. But scratch below the surface.

That says a lot about Joe; he’s managing. Look around you; 90 % of the people you see from day to day aren’t managing it. They’re overworked, overdrawn, overextended, over mortgaged, overweight, and by the looks of things, over the hill. And they’re underpaid, under stress, underdressed, under-achieved, and under the gun. In other words, they ain’t managing it well but good ole Joe, “I’m managin’.”

Then you see Frank; haven’t seen Frank for about as long as you haven’t seen Joe.

“How ya doin’, Frank?”

“Hangin’ in there.”

It almost sounds like Frank and Joe are walking shoulder to shoulder in some sort of miserable mundane macrocosm of life as we know it today.

Let’s look at Frank’s words a little more closely; “Hangin’ in there?”

Where? Where’s Frank hanging? We know it’s not in a closet, from a streetlight, or from a flagpole; else we wouldn’t be seeing Frank. If he was hanging from a flagpole he could at least say, “Hey, I’m up here, hangin’ in there.” But Frank is lying. No rope, no chain, no hanger, no string, no hook. Frank is unreliable. Maybe he means he’s hanging out—but where? He’s not there. He’s not where he should be hanging. He should be there if he’s “hangin’ in there.” We don’t even know where there is. If it was here, we’d see Frank hanging off something. The least he could do is bring “there” with him, so we’d at least know where he is supposed to be hanging.

If I was hiring, I’d hire Joe before I’d hire Frank any day. At least Joe can manage.