A Crack In The Planet

The scene to the left featuring Adam Sandler's line of "Well, there was a crack in the planet..." comes from the 2004 movie, Spanglish. The scene, involving Tea Leoni, is a pivotal moment in the movie where Leoni's character admits to something that fractures Sandler's character's world. That's the feeling I have today, albeit under completely different circumstances than what Sandler's character experienced. The worst part is that I can't really talk about it because I respect the people who are trying to correct this idiocy in some way, but to say the news caught me completely offguard would be entirely accurate. Hours later, I'm still processing it.

I'd like to be more forthcoming, but there are factors that prevent me from doing that. As stated above, there are people who are working to solve this problem, but things are far from assured to be corrected at this point. The outlook seems good, but there are still a lot of ends that need to be tied off for this news to make sense. I respect the group of people involved to a degree that I don't need to be talking about their plans and ideas on how to resolve this problem, but let's just say that whoever is behind this decision has a lot of explaining to do to people who deserve a rational explanation.

As with any organization, leadership will change, and with those changes will come new visions and/or mandates that leadership wants to see. I've been through a few of these changes at the top myself to know that the ripples in the water extend far out when it comes to who is affected, but I know I always believed that a succcessful individual or team would be able to point to their achievements as a way to avoid a lot of shake-up following those changes. Reality, unfortunately, is a cruel mistress who doesn't share those same beliefs, and changes to the most successful parts of an organization often come with little to no warning. Such is the case in this instance, it seems, as success mattered little in this decision.

Just to be clear since I'm being ominous and purposeful with my lack of details, none of this affects me personally. I'm still gainfully employed, the blog and radio show are still rolling along, and everything is good for me and my family when it comes to health and happiness. The entire debacle surrounds a group of people I hold in high regard, though, and I share in their pain, anger, frustration, and confusion over the decision made that affects them so greatly. While I am optimistic about where the path leads from this point, the mess left at this significant fork in the road requires some serious soul-searching by those who forced this decision to stand.

There will be more details I'll publish at some point, but I'd rather let the process work its way through the various parties at this time without making things worse since I, too, am angry, frustrated, and confused over what's happened. In the end, I trust the people who are now managing this situation because they're good people, and that counts for something in my books. For the people who made this wildly short-sighted decision that affected everyone in ways that can't be rationalized, it might be time to ask what purpose you serve.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!