money isn't everything
It was a few years ago, exactly how many I won't say, that I swung my hips through the front doors of the now defunct Atomics International Division of Rockwell, International. An appointment had been made with the Director of Financial Operations for an informal interview just to see if I was as impressive in person as my resume' skill set implied. After a 30 minute chat with both the Director and the supervisor of Financial Operations, I was given the option of choosing where I thought I would best fit in...I chose Contract Administration, was assigned the much sought after and highly regarded $30 mil Sodium Reactor Experiment contract, sat down in the midst of MIT physicists and Berkeley engineers, becoming a member of one of the foremost scientific teams doing Research and Development on nuclear reactors in the country at the time... a mere child with the I.Q. of a genius and the spirit of a revolutionary, thus beginning the fourth chapter of what was to become the rhapsodically accompanied ongoing romantic novella that is my life.
It was the most arduous, pressure intensive time I've ever experienced...I witnessed armor clad, machine-gun toting federal agents guarding load after ominous load of highly fissionable materials being put on board anonymous looking unmarked 18 wheelers for transport on public highways...I watched good men, strong men literally wither and break under the mental strain of being intricately involved in the development and retention of volatile classified information, one even dying on the floor at my feet.
I was making more money then ever before but this was not a happy time in my life. My spirit and sensitivities were much too fragile for this level of inane proprietary hold on my fleeting youth and classically attuned sensibilities.
After almost nine years of entering and exiting this compound under the scrutiny of ex military security operatives, I was headhunted by Ralph Parsons for the purpose of assisting in the management of their contractual obligations to build the city of Jedda in Saudi Arabia. I was offered an obscene increase in salary and a list of mindbending benefits that would make what is being offered today pale by comparison...but guess what?...yes, I turned it down...I washed my hands and soul of the AEC, DOE and GOV'T, vowing from that day forth the pursuit of money or career status would not be what governed my life or ambition but that only the exploration of the entire realm of my creative gifts and abilities would determine my path.
Innately, I knew there was so much more to discover about me and relatively so little time in which to do it. With that realization, it seemed a serendipitous, rainbow-colored butterfly emerged from my solar plexus, circled my head a few times, acclimating me to her spin and rhythm, and then took flight before me. I've been on her tail ever since...her every flit and flutter becoming a color drenched, musical accompaniment to the symphony of my days.
lovespirit
