Webcurrents ... Today's Column ... Archive Index August 19, 1997 So much regret. Shock. Sadness. Grief, too. But certainly most of all regret. Yesterday a close acquaintance shot himself dead in the midst of a business dispute with some former employees. Alex had been a client of mine. Last summer I designed a web site for his business. His widow, Mary, is the director of our city's art museum and I am in my second term on the city's Arts and Museum Advisory Board. The dispute became public over the last few weeks following the filing of charges against him and a newspaper article and photo of his disgruntled employees picketing outside his office. Accusations flew from both sides. It was a very difficult situation for all involved. Night before last, we visited with Alex and Mary at a dinner party. He seemed cheerful and wanted to hear all about our recent cruise, saying he and his wife would like to go on one some day. We made polite small talk, not mentioning his troubles but being painfully aware of them just the same. His former employees had contacted me about a new web site, and I was feeling very much like Benedict Arnold. How much now I wish I would have offered him some small bit of encouragement that night, no matter how awkward I felt about it. Not that anything I could have said would possibly have made any difference at all. But now it is too late. I believe we are each here for our own unique journey. We can never know why things happen like they do. But we do know there is much for us to experience and our life is short, too short to be tap dancing around or avoiding the areas in which we fear to tread. I'm putting away my tap shoes, come what may. www.webcurrent.com |