Coffee Break

C and I have worked together for going on four years now. A former marine, C is Mr. Dependable and the man to have on your team while being crushed by deadlines. He may not have a solution to everything but he will work tirelessly to help. Beyond that salient fact about him, I don't know much about him beyond the usual - where he lives, where his oldest goes to college, what his wife does for a living and so on. It is the stuff that has come up in conversations over the years. When your colleagues are geographically dispersed, it is hard to get a real sense of the personality from bits of mundane information like that. You know a person is a lot more complex and interesting than what little you know. 

Every once in a while there comes a little tidbit that really brings some real color. Yesterday, we had a quick call at the time I know C likes to grab a mid-morning coffee. If it is just to catch on projects we have been working on, this is the ideal time. He told me he was outside watching Monarch butterflies that appear this time of year where he lives. He talked about the wildflower garden he and his wife maintain in their yard and the assortment of birds that visit there; the declining numbers and unpredictable migration patterns over the years. I tried to imagine C as an avid naturalist and gardener, keeping track of insects, birds and bees he observes around him. In a strange way, seeing him in this light helped me better understand his work persona. The quirks of character that I puzzled over at time made a lot more sense.