GodSpeed and thanks for putting up with me all these years.
(sorry this is so long but what’d you expect from me? This is short for 10 years)
I don’t think your timing is all that bad and believe me I’d do the same if i had a means to do it just because as Ant mentioned its been a long time. You were seasoned when I came along and now I’m the old fart on the boards.
For myself a new challenge was what made it possible for me to know all of you and have this whole experience which btw … though it had some very low lows: it also has some great highs … so was and remains a rollercoaster ride … its been the best 10 years of my life and made possible the best 10 years that remained of my son’s childhood … to be able to have the time and eventually money to provide us with a great relationship.
i tell you all this Lou because I wouldn’t have had it happen if I hadn’t left a bad work situation.
when you start hating to go to work everyday its truly time to take the leap of faith.
embrace the future but come back and stay in touch.
as for being a monster i think its more a matter of you have turned into something that people can focus their frustrations on and its easier to go to war than to try and fix things thru whatever system is set up so many whether consciously or otherwise … they will sabatoge their circumstance to put themselves in a position to … go to war.
I just state this is a possibility that I think few have ever considered.
I also think it is quite easy to forget that the people on the other side of the page are just as real and just as capable of bleeding as our selves so in the process of battle (business) which is not a game for the feint-hearted or thin skinned … it is all too easy to have snapped the whip a little harder than you really meant or vice-versa them doing to you.
I do not seek to place Lou on either side of the coin but rather seek to say that any of us could find ourselves on the right or wrong side because we’re all human and will not be perfect.
And there are extreme stakes involved and coming from such diverse backgrounds there are bound to be situations where one side feels their decision to do something is just business and a natural direction where their business should be intended to branch and the other side feels threatened or infringed.
Which is certainly one outsider’s possible view of the situations that have played out in recent past.
Lou has had a big, really big plan in his mind or else he’s really good at pulling together loose ends but I suspect the former … and I think that some of those who have been estranged had never forseen that Lou’s vision for CAP was an all-encompassing entity (and there is not a thing wrong with that) and that CAP was merely allowing outsiders to fill the gaps that CAP had not yet addressed but would some day ….
and when that some day came … there were hard feelings which have grown to become an outrageously dangerous situation like a boiler with its gage buried in to the red side for far too long .. that has just seems to have no end in sight. Oddly yet predictably enough … the ones that stir the fire the most are ones much less involved in the issues at hand and those most involved seem to make some effort to having a life instead of blaming Lou for their not having one.
Other people only have the power over you that you allow them to hold. Lou is effectively taking that out of play with this decision.
As things progressively get worse in the economy (and I hope they don’t) we’ll continue to see civilized behavior deteriorate and if you’re the focus of someone’s problems that you know are only going to grow worse in the coming months then yes ,… it is best to get far away from it before they can focus all that negative energy at your direction.
I can say with all confidence that 95% of the people on the other side of the coin are decent human beings that wouldn’t really seek to do you harm … that in fact when they hear of this they will actually be in denial and some will feel regret they took it so far. I know I very much wish I had the power to change the current status because I like all the people involved but I also realize that isn’t possible. Some lines cannot be uncrossed.
If i were to guess the future from this point i would expect to hear claims you’re pulling strings from behind curtains and ironically your legend will grow with every tail and conspiracy that is shared which will snowball … giving those who don’t “move on” … something to hate that really doesn’t exist any more.
So I say to you sir, God Speed and thank you for accepting me when I was shunned at the place which CAP eventually outgrew and left behind … which is also ironic since … we weren’t wanted and in some cases allowed … at the other place.
Few of us remain but we are not extinct. And with exception of very few (if any) … they left on their own accord and not because they were shunned or forced out.
I feel a great loss in the “force” but both admire and applaud the wisdom of your decision for reasons mentioned. These are not times to be likely forgiving a fool and the only true winning gambler is one that knows when to walk away from the game.
I know you’ll stay in touch but as a leaving gesture I’ll ask that you think of me on nights when feel you’ve had enough but give in and have one more and I’ll do the same.
I promise those are the times when you won’t see the bad … just a lot of fun, sillyness and many, many success stories which still seem sureal considering the circumstance.
Cheers
S.