So, April 1st will mark a year since Lexmark paid me to find a new job.
To recap, I agreed for that year, I’d not besmirch the name of LXK, recruit anyone of my old colleagues, or attempt to work there again. The last is really not an issue, but the former two are tougher. I’d dearly love to reach out to folks and get them to work with me again.
That middle item is the reason I’m writing tonight. As I write this, I’ve just done 170+ miles in our Sienna minivan, shuttling goods from our garage to a Life Storage facility up in Georgetown, Texas. Our daughters have been accepted to a private academy up there, and the place seems much more like us than Austin proper. We’re house-hunting and trying to cache stuff up there for the inevitable move sometime in April, May, or June.
Anyway, that much time on the road gives one a chance to think, especially what the right thing to do is once my contractual gag-order expires.
On one hand, oh the stories I could tell! Stories of a place that lost its way in a big way, anecdotes of personal pettiness, jealousy, and immaturity. Likewise, there’d be stories of (relative) triumph, of people pulling together and “Making it Happen”. In sum, I had many good and bad experiences there that I think would make interesting copy.
On the other hand, it’d help no one and it’d probably hurt me and my family. A “tell-all” might be juicy, but writing one is the mark of one with nothing left to lose, seeking attention.
On my more egotistical days, I fashion myself like an SDE Peter Egan, telling amusing anecdotes from the front line with his easy style, with words people like to read. The reality is I’m just another person shouting to the ether, with nothing novel to say whatsoever.
Hemingway at least had Spain and WWI to talk about. All I have are memories of life in the Crystal Palace beside Taco Tico watching a corporate realize its obsolescence over 15 years.
Still, there are stories to tell, with wisdom I learned. They’ll probably be navel gazing crap, but I have over a decade of blog entries that show I love exactly that.