20131208.0800

The annual Christmas pageant at the United Methodist Church of the Village in New York City is today, and, for the first time in some years, I will miss it; the commute is a bit much.  In the past, I played the part of Herod the Great, enjoying it perhaps more than I ought to have done and thereby earning acclaim as the Resident Villain of the Church of the Village.  (Indeed, any time a church performance called for a bad guy, I was the first one tapped; I played a slave-driver and Judas Iscariot in addition to Herod, making some people quite uncomfortable.)  While I am glad to see that the performance will continue, and that the role I have held will be filled by a talented actor (far more than I), I find myself missing it greatly--as I have noted to a few people.

It is not the first time that I have been in the position, and I doubt that it will be the last.  I have many times been part of an organization only for a few years, and while I have done much in those years, I have not been able to remain.  Consequently, I have had to step aside, yet the work I had been doing still needed to be done; as such, someone else was asked to take on the work, or volunteered to do it.  The organizations have endured since, frequently thriving for quite some time after my departure; I have looked back in on them from time to time and seen that they do so.  As with the church, I a happy to see that what I have been involved with has fared well; I am increased through my association with things that endure.  But I long to be part of the thing again, at least for a time (some things, I would not return to, even if richly rewarded).

The fact of being replaced or succeeded is something with which most people, if not all, must contend.  (There is a distinction between the two, although both involve one person leaving a position and another taking that same spot.)  Seeing it happen is not easy; investment of time and energy into doing a thing, sometimes over the space of years, prompts identification with that thing.  To have another assume the role identified with is difficult; it implies at some level that the time and effort spent on the thing matters not at all, that the person who spent the time and energy does not matter.  And it is no easy thing for people to be told that they do not matter; witness the depressive tendencies among those who are downsized out of jobs or who retire.

That is not the only available interpretation, however.  Far more fortunate, and easy to believe when having left a place of respect and love, is the interpretation that the time and effort spent have positioned the organization such that it can continue and thrive.  Rather than being the support, the person spending the time and energy is a trailblazer, and the fact that the path laid out can be followed easily and well is a sign that the trailblazer has done well.  It is admittedly true that the interpretation is eased by the positive confirmation of those who follow after (and I have had that, for which I am grateful), but even without such signs, so long as there is not positive evidence to the contrary (and I have had that, too, which is less good but still useful; if nothing else, I know the difference well), the interpretation can be sustained.  And that is a good thing on which to think.