On Poking the Bear

On occasion, I have blogged about my workplace – about the frustration and angst of being where I am at. In short, I have “poked the bear”, I don’t know if “the bear” reads my blog – the bear might, parts of the bear probably do. I have also “poked the bear” more directly, via a book review in the divisional newsletter and the intranet and to that end, the bear has responded somewhat in mixed ways. Granted, the direct pokes are perhaps a little more diplomatic than some of what can be found on this blog. To date the bear hasn’t taken a swipe at me, although I have at times thought that it might.

However, my experience has sold me on the power of writing, and more broadly on the power of blogging and other social media (twitter, facebook) to affect change (both personal and social). It was not until I started pouring my thoughts and ideas out in a way that others might read and respond to that the challenges I was facing started to become surmountable in real and tangible ways. It is a way of speaking the name that should not be spoken; a way of peeling back the façade of a challenge to identify and explore what is beneath the surface and from there to think about how that challenge might then be overcome. The beautiful thing about blogging, about allowing those who read my blog to respond either via comments or through email – is that the door is then open for collaboration.

I recognize that my current situation is not sustainable in the long-run; that it results in a longing for something more. The writing is clearly on the wall. The culture as it has evolved, and who I am are not compatible and a consequence of that has been profound disengagement. Writing is my coping mechanism – and beyond that it is a tool to affect change, it builds a path from where I have been, to where I am at, to where I will be.

So I recognize that I might be “poking the bear” – but when I think of the alternative, of keeping the part of me that might best benefit from building new roads and bridges private – it seems as though it is a reasonable risk to take. Further, I have learned that skeletons in closets haunt their owners, whereas those on display have tremendous tuition value. Because of blogging, my closet is bare – and paths to a better future are being built