Like many of us, I’ve had the privilege to be a workaday schlub in lots of different environments. Always, what’s special and what you take with you when you move onto something else is the people. They’re there every day!
Way back when I had my first job working in a restaurant kitchen in tourist-ville PEI one summer, I remember the shock of realizing, “I’m gonna be with these people, close-quarters, practically every doggone day.”
What a weird and wonderful thing to be slapped together with some random group of people, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but the job in front of you.
Now, as an editor and writer, I rarely get to have that experience. Except when I’m at a talk or a meeting for editors. Let me tell you, what a nice bunch of smart, wry, introverted kooks!
Here’s an example: every year, Editors Canada has a three-day conference with workshops, guest speakers and lots of talking about editing. They also have a dress-up dinner where everyone dresses fancy. But not understated fancy, weird fancy. Think pink bowties and spats. Feather boas and three-tiered hats.
It’s bizarre because they’re editors.
Jayson MacLean 