Glenn Keller

You know what you’re gaining. A little more time at home, time with your family or your dog or your lover. Precious things.

But those are all inward facing, insular. You have more time to hang out with your friends, the ones you chose. The ones you’re comfortable with.

But those are not the people that will make you grow. The people that will infuriate you until later, when you calm down, and realize they had a point.

Or the ones that will stop you in the hallway, on a whim, to tell you something you don’t want to, but need to hear.

I once had a career discussion with a colleague from Hungary while waiting at a taxi stand in Pittsburgh. He held a superior position and thought I could do bigger things than I.T.

There are no taxi stands in remote land.

The overwhelmed young lady that I saw crying at her desk. The talk we had about perspective…it would not have happened in remote land. She would have been crying at home and by herself.

I’m standing in a driveway in Hungary, me and my Russian colleague, having been invited over for a nice Hungarian dinner. Instead, in a brilliant move, our Hungarian colleague has dragooned us into shoveling his driveway before dinner. But just now we are doubled over in laughter as our host is getting the devil from his wife. It’s in Hungarian, but being married ourselves, we require no translation. She does not like the idea of having your dinner guests shovel your driveway before feeding them. He gives us a shit-eating grin…out of his wife’s line of vision, of course.

I know some of you have shoveled a driveway. I know some of you may even have shoveled a driveway with a Russian. The strange twisted dynamics of the universe suggest that you may have, implausible as it sounds, shoveled a driveway, with a Russian in Hungary. But please, don’t tell me you’ve shoveled a Hungarian driveway with a Russian while your Hungarian colleague is getting a tongue lashing from his wife.

Try that with Zoom.

The meal, in case you are wondering, was fantastic.

© Glenn R Keller 2022, All Rights Reserved