Sign of the Times

My sister and her husband just pulled out of our driveway on their way back to Indianapolis. It was a short visit filled with what's great about family and what family values are all about. (By the way, those who know me as a writer, will find this blog to contain fragmented sentences, sentences ending with propositions, etc., the way Steven King suggests to write, not editors). My sisters trip was planned a couple of weeks ago and we were looking forward to celebrating my wife's birthday today, Sunday the 18th. They went back a day early. You see, on the way down from Indianapolis, somewhere around Louisville, my brother-in-law received a cell phone call that he was being released from his job of twenty nine years at once was the previous "RCA" corporation. He knew the call was coming soon, but wasn't prepared to receive it in the car on his cell phone. Having been in the exact situation two years ago, I can tell you that even if you knew the day and hour it was going to happen, when it finally arrives, the emotion is overwhelming. I told him when he arrived that I'm surprised he didn't turn around and go back home. He said something to the effect "Why, I'm off tomorrow!"

This, of course, is one of the reasons he has survived the numerous layoffs at his company over several years. The "old" RCA, at one time, had 26,000 employees in Indianapolis alone! Now they have forty...or, as he said, 39. (Nothing of the former RCA exists in the US.) My brother-in-law, Tim, is incredibly smart, extremely talented (there is a difference), and one of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of knowing. And although we had a great weekend with him and my sister (that's another blog), it was only a delay of what he will feel over the next couple of weeks. I remember my ordeal when it happened...feeling down, feeling excited for a new beginning, fear, doubt, anxiety, acceptance...you name it, it's all in that big arena we call being downsized. He, like I, will read all the books like "The Secret," What Color is you Parachute?" etc. There will be a feeling of renewal and even excitement. Like myself, a job will be found, the sun will continue to rise, and life will go on.

What he will hear is what I heard..."You'll find something soon" "You're not alone, all my friends are out of work" "It's part of the employment fabric" etc. But he will also hear the one phrase that I could not "read away" or stuff into a mental foot locker. That comment will be "It's not personal, just business" and "This is probably a good thing!" I'm sorry,,,,it is personal... in fact, it's very, very personal...and, at least in the short run, it's not a good thing. Both comments are part of the new politically correct rhetoric that I find harder and harder to accept as I enter Turn Three (remember Turn Three!)

Time, however, does heal this feeling, but like an ancient volcano, every once in a while it mentally erupts and causes a wave of regret (anger, sorrow, pick a word). Like volcano's, however, the time between eruptions becomes longer and longer. I'm not sure it ever goes completely away.

My brother-in-law will rebound ..he will, once again, find a place to go in the morning...he will continue with the wonderful life he has with my sister....once he gets past the carnage of what I call the "aftermath."