Tales from the Corporate Front

I have a corporate day job—it’s a pretty nice job. I can’t complain, though I am often reminded as I talk to coworkers that I am just visiting. I am not on quite the same life trajectory, if my ‘My Story’ page hasn’t made that abundantly clear.

I’m happy to be a visitor in what the spirits have called my “imaginary job.” As with everything they say, there’s layers on layers to that, one of which I’ll touch on today.

The industry I work in tends to breed obsessives, and many corporations encourage that tendency through a carefully manufactured and cultivated facade. Team building events, initiatives for community involvement, donation drives, internal rewards, and a judicious dose of lies and flattery. A few years ago, I would have been much easier to move.

Who doesn’t love praise, a raise, and the good opinion of people with power over your life?

At lunch, I sat with my boss and team members. The conversation wandered—retirement, a modest recitation of our achievements, complaints about the people around us—all more or less normal lunch time topics.

As I listened, I found myself both incredibly grateful to have a job and equally grateful for the sense of purpose that does not stem from my job, my workplace or social achievements. I enjoy my coworkers, but I am equally happy to shrug off my corporate face at the door when I come home, peeling the jacket from my back and putting on something more comfortable.

But don’t get it twisted. That corporate attire is no impediment from the work of the spirit. I’ll roll them sleeves right up and get to it.

My papa (godfather) says of mystics that we are a breath of wildness in the world. I am, whether behind a desk or no. I am, whether in a bar or no. I am, whether at a fete or no.

We are, he says, free. We pay for it. We give everything and more.

But I am reminded, sandwich in hand and participating happily in conversations, that this is not my source, merely the now of my life.

Knowing that lets me greet it with gratitude.