Sally's World: May 8,, 2012

I gotta admit....I'm not a huge fan of 'Team Building Exercises'. I haven't been since , once, while working in the prison, we got a counselor with a brand spanking new degree. For what reason, only she and God know, she convinced the participants in her group to pair off and take turns falling backwards while the other member of the duo caught him.

Now, don't think for a second that I did not understand the objective: build trust, right? However, let's remember that these people were incarcerated. Each had brought to jail life experiences that A. had not , probably, given him many opportunities to trust or be trusted, and B. most were not, to be blunt, wrapped all that tight. Figuratively speaking.

Guess what happened? Well, some of the catchers just 'happened' to move causing their 'partners' to fall flat on their backs. Since these guys , also, were not big fans of the 'Turn the Other Cheek' philosophy, the resulting altercation required Correctional Officers to move in and set things right. I remember standing there and wondering how Alene and Russell's baby girl had gone from hanging out at Jack's Hamburger Stand to watching a bunch of screaming neurotics go to war over a team building exercise that went wrong. Really, really wrong.

I knew a Correctional Officer once who , when I asked him, if he had ever been afraid, replied: 'I haven't been afraid, but I've been concerned. That night, I was 'concerned'.

I like to think that, after that experience , I can be forgiven if I tend to get tense when I arrive at any function and find 'Team Building' the first item on the agenda. However, our new superintendent is a big fan, and , therefore, my boss has started to begin each staff meeting with one. Yesterday, we were asked to put our names on blank sheets of paper and pass the paper to the person to the left. As each paper came to you, you were to write two positive things about the person whose name was on each paper. When your paper came back around to you, there were positive comments from your co-workers. Nice idea, right? Didn't make me any more tense than I, normally, am.

However, this is the concern: I am used to being told that I have a good sense of humor (sometimes the term is 'nut job', but I take that positively). I'm used to being told that I am helpful. All the Bakers and the Brittons are helpful. We just are. However, I had four comments from four different people who said I was 'wise'. Wise? Huh? Since when? And the question that I have is: Is 'wise' the current code for 'old'? Just asking.