Old East Coast Cemetery

I was walking today in the Herndon Virginia area in search of a sweet tea which required nearly an hour and several plodding miles to accomplish. Along the way I spotted a secluded little cemetery and decided to have a look. 

From the sign at the entrance, I knew that it was on the grounds of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church that had moved a couple times while maintaining the cemetery.  Just inside the grounds was a special section where the former pastors of the church were buried.  One gravestone caught my eye. 

It seems that Reverend William L. Hill, who lived to the ripe old age of 89, pastored the church for 49 years.  In this day and age, that seems incomprehensible.  Who would put up with a pastor, or what pastor would put up with a congregation, for 49 years?  Most of the other gravestones in the area were illegible or not even

gravestones.  It was then I realized that I was unceremoniously traipsing over the graves of long dead paupers and possibly soldiers. 

The graveyard was obviously maintained and had a few new grave sites.  I could tell by the large granite slabs with names of the deceased and their birth and death dates, some of which were in 2015. But by far, the majority of the graves I had inadvertently walked on were only marked with a stone pulled from a nearby hillside. It got me thinking of the history of the place.  I am in an area that saw many Civil War battles, but an Internet search told me the original church was built in 1867 so the cemetery might not be a place where Civil War dead were interred.

But maybe it was.  One legible tombstone marked a death date in 1839, so maybe the cemetery came first followed by the church.  If true, I was standing on hallowed ground where Civil War soldiers were buried at sites hastily marked with rocks.  It was then I noticed that what I had thought were open walkways between rows of graves were also graves with much of the rock markers buried.  I suddenly felt irreverent walking on those graves and promptly left after taking a few pictures.

An obvious attempt was made at the Mt. Pleasant Cemetery to identify the dead, and a few modern markers and American flags were sparsely distributed next to a few of the rock markers, but there must have been hundreds of simply marked anonymous graves in this one cemetery.  I suppose there are hundreds of similar sites near Civil War battle fields across the country.  Each with scores or hundreds, or even thousands of rock markers.  A glimpse of, and a sobering thought of what it must have been like to live in America during the 1860's.

End of Sabbatical

It was 4 months to the day since I left my job.  Next Monday I begin a new job with Time Warner Cable, sort of going back to where I started.  I have greatly enjoyed my time off.  Over the past 4 months, I have observed many things personally and in current events.  One item has stuck with me as a new learning.  It is not an original thought, but once I heard it, it really resonated.  It can be proven true by looking back on recent events, and watching tonight's nightly news.

Americans have become too comfortable with thought control.

I'm not referring to the soft kind that advertisers use - buy our stuff and you will look cool.  Instead, I am referring to the full blown Orwellian 1984 kind where government and the media combine to control the way people think.  Just look back at the past few months.

Did you think a year ago that America has a problem with white cops shooting black men?  The idea cannot be substantiated with facts, but many people believe it anyway.  We hear the chant of black lives matter.  Yes they do, but why specify black lives? Don't all lives matter, white, black, brown, and police?  Hands up, don't shoot became a rallying cry and was completely based on a lie. Yet the media reported it, political figures repeated it and many people to this day believe it.  If you do not agree, you are racist.  It's thought control.

Five years ago an overwhelming majority of Americans believed that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman.  Even current champions of LGBT causes supported traditional marriage a few months or years ago.  But since then a massive media campaign has portrayed gays as lovable characters on TV shows, and courageous public representatives of a legitimate lifestyle.  The media campaign changed how gays are perceived, which by itself is not a negative.  But a majority of Americans still believe that same sex marriage is not natural and do not personally support it.  Yet, the judicial branch has forced same sex marriage irrevocably into law while the media plays a narrative that if you do not agree, you are homophobic.  It's government and media practicing pure unadulterated thought control.

Climate change has become the new religion of progressives.  The basic theory of carbon in the atmosphere changing climate has not, and cannot be proven, yet it is considered settled science.  The term "settled science" should be enough to discover the underlying thought control.  Is any science settled?  The climate change theory that came with a predictive graph showing future average temperatures has been a complete bust, yet the practitioners of the climate change religion continue to have faith.  Government labels those who challenge the theory as deniers and troglodytes, while the media provides cover for temperature data contamination, outright falsification, and alternative theories. It's thought control.

In just over a year, we will elect a new president. The media won't directly tell us who to vote for, but will enforce a bias that provides an unfair advantage to their candidate.  You will not need to look past the evening news to see certain candidates reported with a negative slant while another positively.  Video clips and still pictures will be carefully selected to portray friendly, caring shots of the desired candidate while others will look grim, unhappy or mean.  Harsh, inelegant quotes from unfavored candidates will be repeated during the 24 hour news cycle without consideration of the truthfulness of the quote.  Spectacular lies from the favored candidate will be ignored.

How was the Confederate flag changed from a Civil War symbol to the logo of racism?  Americans have become too comfortable with thought control.

God Things

Earlier this month, I read a blog post by a friend of a relative named Kelly Levatino.  That post can be accessed here.  In her well written and entertaining blog, she describes how God had provided her with a job opportunity that fit her skills and met a very demanding list of personal must-haves.  As I read the post, I realized that I too had the beginning of a very similar story.  That story is now ready to be told. 

2014: I was stuck in a job that I hated, working for a company that fostered bureaucracy and a toxic work environment.  Many times I wished that a job would fall into my lap and rescue me from the daily grind that was sapping my spirit and leaving me stressed out and possibly a little depressed. Beyond wishing, my prayer became "show me an exit and I will take it".

December 2014: I completed a regular and depressing manager duty of selecting the team members that I would lay off during the next cost cutting exercise.  This exercise had become a regular event over the past several years and never got any easier.  This time, we were planning the layoffs for January, February and at mid year.  The goal was to reduce the onshore employee ratio from 60% to as low as 20% in 2015.

This lay off was conducted much like previous lay offs.  As a manager, I would learn of impending layoffs months before they were executed, make my lay off selections, and then live with the knowledge of who was losing their jobs as I worked with them daily.  According to company policy, I could not share the information with anyone, especially the victim, lest they find other employment and bolt before the predetermined time.

The company would plan the layoffs as one might plan a surprise party - extreme secrecy right up until the victim was invited into a conference room where I would surprise and shock them with the news they were no longer employed.  It was an especially cruel and unusual way of ending someone's employment.  This is one tactic used to foster a toxic work environment. 

During the planning for the early 2015 rounds of layoffs, the company leadership made a late request to increase the number of people we would lay off in February.  This led to a late request of all managers to bring one more name to a meeting that would determine the final list.  I was already in a foul mood having selected 2 contractors and a 35 year veteran employee and friend for the January and February lay off lists.  Then it struck me.  This is the exit.  My prayer became "tell me if I this is not my exit".

That evening I spoke with Terri.  She was painfully aware of my unhappiness (such a weak word) and that I wanted out.  While concerned about things like health insurance and my ability to find new employment at 58 years old, she did vow to support my decision.  I would offer my name as the one more name for the February lay off list.  I felt comfortable with the decision.  This is the first in a series of God things.

January 2015: I let my two contractors go.  While depressing, contractors live with the knowledge that each day, even each hour, might be their last working on any contract, so as lay offs go, this one was fairly easy.  I still held on to the knowledge that my friend and coworker of the past 12 years, a person well liked and respected by my entire team, would be let go in February.  The anxiety was lessened somewhat due to the fact that my friend was in his 70's, and that once I laid him off, I would also be laid off.  I had become at peace with moving on.

February 2015: Violating a specific Human Resources directive, I turned the lay off of a friend and colleague into a retirement celebration.  He agreed to announce his retirement and the team was then able to celebrate a long career and relationship with a very nice guy.  The HR team had informed me to not handle the lay off in this manner since it might disclose the coming layoffs and ruin their surprise party.  I opted to do the right thing and ask forgiveness later if needed.  Fortunately it wasn't.

March 2015:  Because I was a manager with diverse responsibilities that would be difficult to absorb by another manager without a hand off, I was asked to transition my role during the month of March and "retire" on March 31.  On March 6th I announced my "retirement" to my internal and external customers via email.  As part of that email announcement, I listed who members of my team would report to after my departure.  It seemed like a courteous thing to do, and fit right in with the transition duty I was asked to accomplish.  But at a company so dedicated to secrecy, it was a mistake.

On Sunday evening, March 8th, my boss called to inform me that my email caused a security concern and was being investigated internally.  It see,s that I had disclosed organizational structure to an external customer. Until the investigation was complete, I was suspended and should remain home awaiting a call. He informed me that he understood the intent of my email and that it was quite innocent, but the outcome could range anywhere between coming back to work later in the week, to termination and loss of my separation package.  Without the separation package, I would lose health insurance the following Friday, and would need to find new employment quickly.  This is not how I envisioned walking though the exit.  I began to question whether the exit was really a God thing, but I could not go back.  The door had slammed shut.

On March 10th the call came.  The investigation concluded that my last day worked would be moved from the March 31 date to the 10th.  The planned separation package would be provided.  The net effect was that I "retired" 3 weeks earlier than planned.  Later I learned that powerful executives had wanted my separation package revoked, while my boss and a Human Resources manager (the same one who directed me to not turn a lay off into a retirement) argued that pulling the package was unjustified by the facts and would tarnish the "retirement" of a 19 year veteran.  Looking back, I would have never expected my boss and the HR manager to win that argument, but they did.  Another God thing.

So I had walked entirely though the exit without knowing what lay ahead.  My departure was called a "retirement" for the benefit of my team.  They needed to believe that I was leaving by choice and not as part of a lay off.  I would have loved to retire, but knew that I needed a least a couple more years to make the retirement financial plan work.  But I now had some time to find a job I felt competent in, and wanted to do.  I had no idea what that job looked like.  My plan was to take some time off and not accept a job during the first 3 months, unless a really nice one fell into my lap.  Since nice jobs rarely fall from the sky, I guess my plan was to take 3 months off.

I spent most of this time tackling huge jobs that I would not be able to complete while working a full time job.  Tasks such as painting my house inside and out, and helping my daughter remodel her bathroom and ready their house for sale.  It sold in one week.  Another God thing.  The buyers wanted to close before the end of June (less than 30 days) which seemed impossible since my daughter and her family did not have a place to move to on such short notice.  But their rental home had just become available and could serve as a temporary residence while they built a house.  It just needed to be completely renovated to be livable for a family of 5.  It needed new paint, new garage door, new floors, and a lot of clean up inside and out.  Since I was unemployed, I offered to help by painting and doing a few other odd jobs.  I thought I had until the end of June to finish, but things were moving much faster.  Let's review.  House goes on the market May 19th or so, a contract is signed on May 27th, entire family goes to Florida for vacation on May 29th and return June 6th, work begins on rental house the following week.  They move into restored rental home on June 20th and close the sale of their house the following week.  It still seems impossible.  God things.

With those tasks completed, I returned to my plan which was to begin to seriously look for work upon returning from vacation on June 8th.  I was either going to start submitting applications on every job that looked interesting, or attempt to make a living as a handyman. The later had appeal to me as it provided a great sense of accomplishment and gratification.  I was able to land a few jobs, but not enough to make a great living.  My prayer since leaving my prior job was "open the door" and smack me in the head if I didn't recognize  what it was.  On June 10th, I receive an email via Linked In from a former Sprint executive that I had worked for 7 years ago.  We had not communicated since he left Sprint in 2008.  He was now a Senior Vice President at Time Warner Cable.  He asked me to call him when I had a few minutes.

I called and we caught up on the past 7 years.  He asked me what I was doing and I responded that I had left my job voluntarily in March.  He was not aware.  He wanted to start a program at Time Warner similar to one I had work on at Sprint.  He wanted to know if I was interested.  Yes, a door was opening.  I flew to Herndon, Virginia on June 18th and 19th for what were called interviews, but actually weren't.  I met with several managers and executives who gave me their thoughts on the new program.  I left my location and salary needs with the SVP and returned to Kansas.

A job was posted at Time Warner on June 24th and I was encouraged to apply for it.  I walked through the open door.  On June 26th I was contacted and informed that I had been selected. The offer met my salary needs and would be located in Kansas City.  God things.

My scheduled start date is July 13th. I will be building a team and establishing a program that is roughly the same as a team I had built and managed at Sprint. 

My story is not as witty or as entertaining as Kelly Levantino's, but it is more wordy and just as supernatural.