An announcement has been made at the office, so I’m now at liberty to share some news.
1) It’s been no secret for awhile that “Daddy needs a change” at the office. And it has become clearer to me over the last two years that, if change was going to come into my life, it wasn’t going to come at ye Instytytte.
1a) Looking back, I’ve spent a total of 19 years on reunions! I’ve been doing this so long I remember how we did it before the internet, before cell phones, when everything was triplicate carbonless paper forms and, if you had to get a message someplace, you walked there. Don’t you think I should be doing something else now?
2) Mother’s death in February also caused me to reevaluate a lot. She always regretted that she hadn’t written her book, which she intended to write up to the end. I told her more than once (in the nicest possible way) that I would not be writing her book - but I haven’t written my book yet, either.
2a) Mother’s first cardiac event took place at age 59. Her father died at age 57 of a heart attack. I found out at Mother’s funeral from my parents’ old friend Joe Miller that my grandfather, as a good Christian Scientist, would not allow them to put him in the ambulance to go to the hospital.
2b) I will be 56 in October.
3) So, I made the decision to leave MIT after 25 total years and spend my time instead on Etiquetteer.
3a) It’s exciting and terrifying all at the same time! I feel like I have no blessed idea what I’m doing. But since the change was not coming to me, I brought the change to myself. ONWARD!
4) I’ve not only consulted some wise people around me (you know who you are, and thank you!), and unsurprisingly, the tarot. (You knew I read cards, didn’t you?) The first card to come up in the first reading, the Fool (see above), underscored the enormity of choice facing me. (The Fool always indicates that there’s a choice involved.) And the results of both readings made clear that for this venture to succeed, I actually have to do the work and not just sit around eating bonbons and playing online solitaire. It’s on me, baby!
5) Response so far has been surprised and supportive, with a tinge of shock. It seems that no one expected this possibility. I am very grateful that I have had so many wonderful people to work with in my time at ye Instytytte - truly a special group working to make beautiful experiences for alumni.
6) My “new life” will really begin in mid-August after I return from my trip to England on the Queen Mary II and have no office to return to but the one I create in my own home. In the meantime, there are all sorts of plans to flesh out.
7) WISH ME LUCK! This is a seismic change.