Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 07:40:56 -0600 From: Robyn Herrington Organization: University of Calgary Subject: [WRITERS] SUB: CONTEST: Keeping it Together KEEPING IT TOGETHER I'm keeping it together. I'm keeping it together. That s who I am, that s what I do. I'm sure I hear digging again. The other digging, I mean, not mine. Ours. Try to be quieter. Can't you hear something? No? All right, keep going then. Dig, ratbrain, dig! Forward and up. What? Well, pass it if you re not hungry. Do I have to tell you everything? Hah! Right, right, forget I asked. Oh, that s good. Well, it s not all that good, not exactly Glenlivet, but it is wet. Cuts the dust. Tastes like dust, actually, but liquid dust. It tastes like information. Pass this back, and remember where and who you got it from. You got it from me. I don't care what it was or where it was from originally, I m the one keeping it all together. You got it from me. There s a guy like me in every organization, at least every one I ve ever been in. Hah! I'm the one who keeps his head when the world collapses. It isn't usually literal, but when it was, I kept it together. I'm the one who eats into an organization, any organization, and I make it a part of me. I make it me. I keep it together. I keep it all together. Wait that s machinery I hear! An excavator or something, check it out. Check it out! Where the hell is it? Wish I could see better, it's so God-awful dark! I hate being in the dark more than anything. There! Over there? God DAMN it, keep it together!!! I need information, I need it like blood, and I will have it, hear me? All I smell, all I taste is dust and blood. Listen!! Can you hear? Noises travelling down a girder? Great, fine. How far does noise travel? Doesn t matter. Focus. Give me something I can use. The short-term objective is escape from here. Is the girder firm? Then start digging, carefully. The short-term goal is escape. I should have thought of that before. Hah! Everyone ran like hell the very moment when the first tower fell, except for me. I stayed and I closed the all-important deal with Japan, got the digital signatures secured. Then I ran, five minutes after everyone else. In retrospect, my long and short term priorities may have been screwed up. My long term objective I met; there I was, started out a mail clerk and I d just leveraged myself into control of a multimillion-dollar company. In the short term, though, I kind of screwed myself right out of my long term goals. It s amazing how your priorities change after a disaster. I ran out into the corridor, and it all came apart as I left. I mean literally, I could see the pieces falling past me, big pieces of building like great bone kites, burning sheets of skin, cells of blood backlit from the crimson flames, nerves flailing their arms and legs as they fell SHUT UP!!! SHUT UP, YOU RAT BASTARD!!! Sorry. I m keeping it together, you can see that. Just dig, okay? I m keeping it together. Lesson learned: take care of the short term FIRST!!! That s what I m doing now. Just dig. It won t be that far. Dig under the girder, so it can hold up our sky, get me? Keep it together. To hell with you. These were strong! Even after the impact, they held together for a while, for the short term they were strong as hell! It was the fire, see, it softened the steel. It ain t burning now, is it? It can't, it s buried in dust and rock, there s no oxygen to burn. The thing is, when you re the guy keeping it all together you have to know a little of everything, and you have to have unkillable will. Little people will tell you that you can t What? Well, breathe shallow. Or don't breathe at all, I don't give a damn as long as you dig, ratones. Don't see me breathing, do you? Hah! I know from blindness. Nobody ever saw me coming. They d give me all these little shit jobs, write the reports, create the forms, take charge of the maintenance. An hour here, an hour there, they d eat my life an hour at a time, every corporation I was ever in. What they didn t know was they were giving me blood. Information is the blood of any organized group, you know it? They think it s dust, but it s blood. And those ugly, unglamorous jobs like maintenance? Chunks of living organizational flesh, my little digging paws. Chunks of meat. Wait! Stop a minute, okay? Listen do you hear that? Nothing, I mean. The noise stopped. Shhh God damn, that s so quiet. Creepy. Have they stopped looking? They can t have, it s been how long? Shut up, shut up, listen, listen hard Hah! Okay, it s started again. Go back to digging, they can t hear you. Watch the sides, though, they re kind of crumbling I think. Keep it together, keep it together, keep it together. See, the thing is, if you re the guy that well, excuse me for breathing, or whatever, but you can eat me, get it? Hah! Like I was saying, If you re the guy the organization eats, one hour at a time, you also get to be the guy that eats the organization, one nerve-bundle of information after another. Project timelines. Org charts. Payrolls. And let s not forget who s screwing who, and who wants to screw who, literally and metaphorically. You have to sniff out the meat and eat it. There! You smell that? NO, not the meat, ratbrains, the AIR!!! We re almost at the top! Keep digging, but be CAREFUL, and KEEP IT TOGETHER!!! Yeah, that s right close together. Now, QUICKLY!!! That pile of rubble over there! RUN!!! AVOID THE LIGHTS!!! Everybody here? No, one or two don t matter. They ll kill us if they see us, and individually we re no match for them. We re not individuals, though, are we? We re one tight little group, we are, and I m the guy that keeps it together. See, that s why I laughed when all your little rat teeth were burrowing through my eyesockets and into my brain. Because even a New York rat pack is an organization, and I m the guy who can keep it together. Now, as for our long term goals Any of you guys ever been ship rats? Port Said, Egypt? Hah! Perfect. To the docks, then. And keep it together. -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Robyn Herrington New Currents in Teaching and Learning / InfoServe Phone: 220-2561 Email: rmherrin@ucalgary.ca Story ideas are like rabbits that have ventured unwittingly into view. The slightest noise or movement can spook them and they bolt off into the dark undergrowth never to be seen again. -- Adrian Bedford ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~