The Farewell Call

Abandoned Barn, Farmersville TX. A friend left the company today, and we had one of those hideous team calls where normal people express sadness. I felt nothing. I felt something two weeks ago, when he told me he was leaving, but this morning, on a global video conference? Nada. What I do in situations like this is make jokes. I said, “Enough about you. What about me? Who am I going to trade crude jokes with in private chat during staff meetings now?” I’m not passionate about my career, so it’s hard to imagine getting weepy about anyone leaving it. I enjoy the work and I like my colleagues, and that’s it. I might feel differently if I’d become a high school or community college English and art teacher, which was probably my “first, best destiny,” as Spock put it. For various reasons that didn’t happen, and at this point I’m glad. Teaching in America looks miserable to me now. I think it could have been fun through about 2010. After that, I would’ve quit. It’s gotten bad enough that,…