January 2023: Work colleagues. Coming off two weeks of COVID after dodging it for nearly three years, I had a moment where I realized that my husband and I had become more than just best friends, virus sharers, and lovers. We were also colleagues despite working in two very different companies in two very different sectors. Work from home (thanks to the pandemic) has allowed us/forced us to work in the same “office” every day; we know the voices of our colleagues from overhearing them on our respective video calls; we know what each of us is working on every day; we know the work tea and drama. And we’re able to look at each other and say, “Hmm. That doesn’t happen at my job. Maybe that’s a red flag?” Is this part of the reason so many people are quitting their jobs/”pivoting” into new fields? They know intimately what other options are out there due to “sharing an office” with loved ones from various fields?
February 2023: Lunch table. Back in grade school, there were often trades at the lunch table. I might hold up a bag of chips and ask if anyone wanted them. Someone might offer me part of a sandwich or a box of chocolate milk in return. Sometimes it wasn’t even a one-for-one trade; sometimes I just gave away the chips because I was full. It was always fun to look around and see what other kids were eating, to make matches, and trades, though. I especially loved weird combinations of food (ones my parents would never think to pack for me)–often stomach turning (e.g. a Lunchable hotdog with a smear of fresh grape jelly), these food combinations were my own culinary adventures! Today, I often read about snags in the climate change space, such as desal plans hitting resistance. When you desalinate water, you’re left with new water in one hand and salty sludge in the other; but the salty sludge is mineral-rich. Why are we not at the industry lunch table, lifting the salty sludge up and saying, “Who needs this?”
Castles in the Air 