Jumping In---Again. Answering Call

I’m back.  It’s been a long two weeks.  My day job has been part of a national merger, the culmination for us occurred this last week.  Fifty-five hour weeks, thirteen straight days of work with lots of activity and the stress associated with the actual arrival of change.  Is there a state of being beyond exhaustion?  That place where sleep is dreamless and insufficient and all the caffeine in the word is not enough.

It is interesting to watch how people respond.  It is a real life “Call to Adventure”.   I watch as many refuse the call.  They want things to continue as they were, despite the flow of events around them.  Others rail against the change.  Some plod along resigned like characters in Chaplin's Modern TImes.  A few are invigorated by the change seeing it as the new experience that it is.  Some of my colleagues have reflected upon themselves and the new culture and decided to change their role within the organization or change organizations.  They recognize that their adventure lies somewhere else.  The departure of talented friends is sad but I am happy for them and proud to see them embrace the risk of personal change.

As writers it is our job to take what some would see as the mundane and raise the stakes.   We ask what would happen to the person who wants to leave an organization and start their own business, but can’t because their spouse/partner want to maintain a certain lifestyle.  Recipe for a murder mystery? What about the person who holds secrets that could blow open the multi-billion dollar merger?  A recipe for a thriller?  Perhaps a urban fantasy or sci-fi or romance. 

What-if?

I like to think of myself as one who answers the call.  I have had a variety of careers and experiences.  I admit I am not a daredevil.  Of course, I am a female of an age where I was raised to not run because it was unladylike and you would fall and break something.  I was also told to not wear patent leather shoes.  I have yet to work up the nerve to bungee jump or sky dive.  But I am always willing to take on projects that push me to think in new ways and, I guess you could say, create.  And I do wear patent leather on occasion and sometimes it is on my feet.

Maybe someday I will jump out of that plane.

How about you?  Are a change embracer?  What is the most interesting change you have made?