The point, again, is that poetry and music were almost forgotten entities at that time despite the fact that, up until then, they were almost everything to me.
I just wanted to be sure that it didn't come across as if I wanted to write during those years, but my job kept me from doing so. I actually hated environmentalists and unions and I didn't know what the Iran/Contra scandal was about or what NAFTA was about. It didn't matter. I was getting promotions and bonuses.
The second thing that I may have written above that might be misleading is when I restarted to write.
Tina, my present wife, began working for The Dow Chemical Company in 1991. I didn't have to look at her too many times for a flame to start burning. I wrote four poems in two nights. I thought they were good and so did Jane, the woman to whom I was married at the time.
I don't know if NAFTA did it or some other governmental sleight of hand, but the entire "atmosphere" to which I'd become accustomed changed overnight. One of the first consequences of the change was Dow's "empowering" my reports and thinning the layers of management globally. Of course, the front line supervisors were the first to go globally. It was funny how fast I went from receiving a yearly merit bonus to becoming a borderline non supervisory burned out corner lamp.
They gave me one last project to do for them and then they laid me off.
That was in 1997, as I mentioned.
I looked for work immediately, hoping to find something in manufacturing as a supervisor. Surprisingly enough, I did find two jobs. However, the managers of those places were not as into positive reinforcement as I was. I quit each job because I tried to redirect reports.
The first job was as a Human Resources manager for a custodial organization called Blackburn Janitorial Services. This was no ordinary janitorial outfit. Blackburn provided the custodial services for the huge research complex that Pfizer, Inc. owned and operated in Groton, CT. In the case of that worker, something was done that could have been improved. Instead of attempting to improve the process, the management of Blackburn at the time was looking as hard as possible to place blame and punish not only the janitor involved, but the janitor's managers and supervisors. This was not how I related to my reports in the past and I wasn't going to start then. I quit.
The second company, The Thomas G. Faria Corporation in Montville, CT, hired me on as a "supervisor" for $10.00 an hour. One of my reports took time off to attend her father's funeral in Puerto Rico. She was otherwise a wonderful asset to the company and when the time came to write a progress report for her, I said as much. I was reamed out unsympathetically by those above me. How could I write all of the positive stuff I wrote about her when she'd just lost all of that work time? I quit, then and there. I turned to the guy who was sort of my back up and said, "You got it."
I then got a job as an inspector of buoys at a buoy manufacturing place. I remembered seeing buoys out on the water. That was my experience. The training was on the job and didn't include time for patience. I then became a patient and began to collect Social Security Disability Insurance.
So, it's 2000 and I find this place where people, for the most part, read all of the poetry that I'd written throughout my life and respond with kind words. Some responded with constructive criticism, but I was once again getting into a positive place. My marriage was still good at the time as well and things were going well.
I made lots of "friends" at the Arcanum Cafà ©. In fact, I got a crush on a few of those that I liked, not the least of which was a woman named Jo. We flirted online and my wife saw some of it and, rightfully, became upset. It didn't split up my marriage, but it was interesting.
I became a moderator, then an administrator. As an administrator, I inadvertently wiped out everyone's post counts by going where no Michael had gone before nor should have ever gone. I was forgiven by almost everyone except me.
I was an embittered "victim" of what I began to call The Corporacracy and began to visit a forum that AC called "Open Discussion" more than the poetry forums. I don't know if I had a right to be bitter or not. In Open Discussion, people posted stuff like "What Song Are You Listening to Right Now?" to "Do You Think Bill Clinton Should be Impeached"?
However, I read the book WHEN CORPORATIONS RULE THE WORLD written by a man named David Korten. If everything Korten wrote/writes is true, I learned about the people for whom I worked, what their place was supposed to be in society and what it was becoming. I became even more incensed.
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