05 December 2014

Unwitting Evangelists



Some folks live in negative territory every day, 
live on the wrongside of the demographic altogether. 
Errors of brain wiring force them into a granularity 
of vision that would terrify the likes of us. 
They struggle, with unyielding integrity, 
to leverage what right functioning they have 
and build some kind of strategic staircase to normality. 
Aberrant fears drill down into vulnerable minds 
feeding back godawful beliefs they can't quite shake, 
shame cascading over it all as if crazy 
wasn't enough to cope with. It's like some sinister 
reduction in force of brain's powers.

In this space, getting ducks in a row 
becomes an effort in grounding. They try to capture 
their colleagues, stakeholders who must come 
to the party, like Alice to the mad hatter, in another 
effort to keep their doors open, to make
their thinking 360 degrees once again. At the close of play,
though, the paradigm rarely shifts, hallucinations,
like low hanging fruit, pre-prepare them 
for the idea showers that never end. Brain storms abound.
They yearn to be platform atheists to their version 
of holistic cradle-to-grave disorder. Instead, 
they're product evangelists even as it loops back on them

and drives others away. Challenges- 
how to conversate, how to sprinkle magic 
over bizarre behaviors, how to touch base offline, 
overwhelm them while answers steer clear. 
Going forward means being lost in a maze on no one's radar
at the end of the day, actioning damaged from the get-go.


Tony Maude has us writing biz-speak, jargon and buzzwords over at the pub. After 36 years working with the seriously and persistently mentally ill, these phrases, silly in a business setting, became a way to better speak the mentally ill's remarkably difficult story. They have my respect.

16 comments:

  1. Really nice job with this; somehow you spike it with dozens of buzzwords & phrases, & yet it is still straight forward in a clear voice. I used Medical-speak for 30 years working with the blind & sight impaired; hard to shake it off after retirement. I like the lines /shame cascading over it all as if crazy/wasn't enough to cope with/.

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    1. Thanks, Glen, I tried to reuse the phrases seriously to tell the untellable.

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  2. Smartly woven with so much management speak :)

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  3. Love it Mary; you've managed touse all the bsiness nonsense to shed light on something that is rarely brought to light - and that makes the language really effective. Bravo.

    Tony

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    1. Thanks, Tony, and thanks for the prompt which helped shape this. I was glad to bring it more to light.

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  4. Actually this bring sense to senseless lingo.. Love the inclusion of the word stakeholder.. one of the words I use.. but hate.

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    1. It's good to make senseless lingo mean something.

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  5. nice... i like how you weave alice and the mad hatter in... some meetings feel a bit like at a teaparty with him for sure...smiles

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    1. Some days at work were like stepping through the looking glass.

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  6. Beautifully done! Visions of conference tables dance in my head.

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    1. These folks don't spend much time around conference tables.

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  7. A successful rummage in the buzzword cupboard.

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  8. Corporate speak or not, that's the beauty of poetry: that the unspeakable can be given a voice. Nicely done!

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