Something Good From Something Bad

My former supervisor, who normally makes my blood curdle due to a very unpleasant and 100% unjustified berating he gave me maybe three years ago, just did something that may have changed everything.

He came into my office. He sat down. He said, "Do you have a second?" which is usually his code for "I'm giving you a giant and hideous new project."

Then he told me that he had heard about my big screwup (though thankfully he did not phrase it this way), and proceeded to relate a story about his own biggest screwup. And it was a big, bad, very public one -- and, like mine, it was an honest case of human error. This would be a much more colorful story if I could relate it as he told it, but what with the precedent of people being fired for blogging about work (Dooce, Sarcastic Journalist, etc. etc.), I dare not.

Even though it was a million years ago, you could just tell his heart hurt to relive it. My heart broke to hear it. And the moral of the story was, he got through it. And he triumphed over it. And that he knows I will too, and that he knows I'm good, and that I am not alone. And that if this is the worst it ever gets, that is damn good in the long run.

The fact that we don't have a wonderful past in some ways moved me all the more. It was a generous, kind, and wholly unexpected thing for him to do. I think I am ready to give him another chance. It's certainly what I want others to do for me.