Threads

By James A. Autry

 

Sometimes you just connect, like that,

no big thing maybe but something beyond the usual business stuff.

It comes and goes quickly so you have to pay attention,

a change in the eyes when you ask about the family,

a pain flickering behind the statistics about a boy or girl in school,

or about seeing them every other Sunday.

An older guy talks about his bride, a little affection after twenty-five years.

A hot-eyed achiever laughs before you want him to.

Someone tells about his wife’s job or why she quit working to stay home.

An old joker needs another laugh on the way to retirement.

A woman says she spends a lot of her salary on an au pair and a good one is hard to find, but worth it because there’s nothing more important than the baby.

 

Listen.

In every office you hear threads of love and joy and fear and guilt, the cries for celebration and reassurance, and somehow you know that connecting those threads is what you are supposed to do and business takes care of itself.