…I learned on an employee webcast that it will be early September, at the absolute earliest, before my company will contemplate re-opening its offices. It will start with smaller offices in less-affected areas and gradually move towards its most populous campuses in urban areas — probably meaning much later for my packed NYC building. I was rather amazed to hear our leaders say that they understood, and would accommodate, employees’ concerns about things like mass transportation, which used to be the last thing on management’s mind! Maybe we will see a broader, deeper shift in labor policy as a result of all this, in the same way that you always read in the history books that the Black Death was the foundation of the middle class. That would be a silver lining indeed!
…I enjoyed a very fruitful early morning bird walk, seeing countless yellow-rump warblers, yellows and a few common yellow-throats. Also the flame-colored Baltimore oriole, and the secretive little northern waterthrush which I’d heard was lurking about but which had always eluded me. But my best find wasn’t the most glamorous bird, but the most exciting spot, because I did it by ear, a birder’s feat to which I’ve long aspired. Birding reports told me there was a white-crowned sparrow in the park, so although I’ve seen one before and it’s not a glorious, rare bird, I decided to try to find it. I knew its song was similar to that of the white-throated sparrow, one of the very few birdsongs I can identify. It starts with the same interval (roughly, a minor 3rd in musical notation), in the same weak, wavery voice, then crumbles into less tuneful buzzing. As I stood under a magical oak tree full of yellow-rumps, I became aware of just such a song nearby, and followed my ears to a bush where I found a bird with unusually crisp black and white stripes on its head. I could see it singing through the binoculars, but its position prevented me from catching any other field marks. But I checked the guides at home later, and indeed this was the white-crowned sparrow I’d hoped to find! I was very proud to have succeeded in ‘birding by ear.’
…I had a slight work crisis when I was asked to rework a big project I’d labored over all week, scheduling an intricate series of introductory appointments for a new employee with several dozen busy, important people. Honestly, I was kind of furious — why did you ask me to do this and then, on Friday, with the job nearly done, give me all this extra input necessitating a major do-over? But I was able to solve most of my problem with a simple request which obviated much of the mulligan; I just had to climb out on that limb and ask, maybe not something that someone at my level would ordinarily risk trying. But it worked! I was reminded of a story Leslie Odom, Jr. tells about getting out of a TV contract so he could do HAMILTON — he was warned to ‘lawyer up’ since this was going to be very very hard, but decided to venture just asking first. It worked — the TV execs let him out of his contract, he joined the HAMILTON cast and went on to stardom, Tony awards, etc. What’s the message here? Come in peace, expecting cooperation rather than confrontation.
Not a bad day!
Linnetontheleaf 