Being proud of what you do
I sat tonight at a bar in San Francisco and finally had dinner – I was leaning towards low blood sugar that accompanies some of my trips – and a woman who sat next to me, who had lost recently, like the rest of us, some of her retirement portfolio said she was “proud of her company” because in 2006 when they were set to have their annual conference of 900 people, they decided to have it as planned in New Orleans because the city needed them — half of the employees donated a day to help rebuild the city, which my dinner companion admitted was very rewarding because the US needs New Orleans, they helped a school get put back together and next year they are going to come back and meet some of the kids from that school – my dining companion said that she talked to the 900 people coming into New Orleans about respect – about if services weren’t up to par, if staff was understaffed, if any of those things were amiss to remember that New Orleans had invited them into their house after a major tragedy, but the city had invited them anyway, so to overlook what was unkempt, misplaced, or not quite right, and be grateful for the invitation. WOW!
For the first time I felt slightly ashamed at how much I love my city and how much I let it down in the first year or two of getting on its feet.
Again I ask the question, who am I?