Planning. As a practitioner, I hope I can remain like a consistent lowercase i.
The world is full of sayings about how things are supposed to be.
Bullshit.
Even so, there is a kind of planning I still pursue.
The planner I imagine, the practitioner I want to become,
is someone like a lowercase i.
An i that can first simply be.
Sometimes i can be the subject, but in most sentences it is not.
That is right. i is lowercase. But that i can appear in many typefaces. Which also means it can have many sizes.
It may not be as thick or imposing as a capital letter, but it still has a size of its own.
Even when it is not the subject, it still plays its own role in connecting and composing many sentences.
It may not stand like the thick, upright pillar of a capital I,
but it can stand slightly apart,
with enough distance to observe itself, others, and the surrounding world,
and with the self-respect to allow that distance.
Inside an organization,
this attitude gives a worker the will, not merely as an employee trying to survive,
but as a practitioner, to raise at least some questions so the organization does not stagnate and rot, even if one cannot change the whole of it.
That is one of its main foundations.
There is no such thing as "this must be this way."
Bullshit.
They are all just images. They change with the era and with one's position. Merely passing forms.
Still, for the work of planning, the trade I have decided to live by for my entire life, I hope it can remain like that lowercase i.
