Message text written by "BP - His DNA is this long."
> Now ....I guess you next move Mike is to grace
us with some homespun poetry...<
I haven't written any poetry in 20 years, and lack the craft of written
language some on this list have demonstrated. As everyone knows, engineers
can't write. But having been encouraged (or challenged) to let my hair
down, I will share one I wrote in at age 26, in 1978, while working as an
engineering team leader for a $14 billion a year multinational corporation
with 60,000 employees in 105 countries.
ODE to David Zimmer
When I was only 3, or maybe it was four
(That's over 20 years ago, and not so clear no more)
My life of Leisure ended and they packed me off to school
As a kindergarten kiddie I was dumb, but I was cool
And I didn't like the schedules, such rigidity's for fools
And I didn't like the bossing, and I didn't like the rules
But I liked the games and arts and crafts
and liked the things I learned
Hoped that some day I would find out
How that Leisure is returned.
But I gave up hope in a week or two
I was stuck for life, not a thing I could do
And my future prospects were getting dimmer
Until I discovered David Zimmer.
Now Dave was kind of a quiet guy
Spoke real soft and acted shy
Old Reliable Dave -- you could bet a dime
That he'd throw up daily, half-way thorugh lunchtime.
Well I've never been one to forsake Golden Fate
So at lunchtime I hovered round Dave Zimmer's plate
And when good old reliable Dave upward spewed
Intercepted a little with my pants leg and shoe.
Well it wasn't that bad and it didn't stink that much
Though it wasn't that great, but it didn't hurt as such
And I got to leave early, escape half a day
And the sun was just shinin' and I'm makin' hay.
And even if only for half of one day,
The sun was just shinin' and I'm makin' hay.
I wake up 5:30, six days of the week
(For 50 of 52 yearly, I speak)
And out to the factory each morning I drive
And most days I feel like I'm hardly alive.
And I don't like the schedules (such things are for fools)
And I don't like the bossing, and I don't like the rules
But I Iike the challenge, and the things that I've earned
Maybe someday I'll figure out how that Leisure is returned.
But I give up hope every week or two
Get to feeling lost, not a thing I can do
And I feel as played out as a drowning swimmer
Where the hell are you, now that I need you, David Zimmer?
Mike E.
Epilogue: A year-and-a-half later, with the encouragement of an 80-year old
entrepreneur who told me that "at my age, if it wasn't exciting, I
shouldn't be doing it", I quit the multinational and started a coatings
manufacturing company from scratch. (Of course, he felt that if it wasn't
exciting at HIS age, he shouldn't be doing it.) There have been no boring
days since.
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