It is funny how the same subject sometimes comes up again and again in widely different contexts, and how seeing the same thing under different lights gives you insight. These days it seems to be how we compartmentalise our live(s).
I had separate talks about this with a colleague and two friends. One of these friends, Mr G., is a past colleague of mine. We do not work in the same line any more, and while we do have a professional relationship beside our comradeship, we no longer need to compartmentalise our lives. But we still do. Old habits die hard. We talked about it, and our conclusion was that our shared experience most intense moments happened when we were playing the Game. So, for us, it is a bounding behaviour, a deadly serious private joke of a kind.
Looking at it in different contexts made me think, which is always dangerous for me ;-) Compartmentalisation has many flavours: it goes from behaving differently depending on who you are with, a thing we all do, consciously or not, to living different lives. It has many causes too: from it being part of your job, to a comfort option you choose to be polite. Whatever the how and why, doing it is not that hard when you have the right aptitude and, possibly, training. It is in fact surprisingly easy. The trouble comes when you have to merge: filling these blank spots in your live, your CV, telling without compromising. This is what they never tell you: you may go back, but never fully. Up to a point, there will always be a part of your backstory you will have to stick to, however small it is. The trouble is that a backstory is just a mean to an end. And you do not want to be just a mean.
Except if you are a true bastard, of course ;-)
I had separate talks about this with a colleague and two friends. One of these friends, Mr G., is a past colleague of mine. We do not work in the same line any more, and while we do have a professional relationship beside our comradeship, we no longer need to compartmentalise our lives. But we still do. Old habits die hard. We talked about it, and our conclusion was that our shared experience most intense moments happened when we were playing the Game. So, for us, it is a bounding behaviour, a deadly serious private joke of a kind.
Looking at it in different contexts made me think, which is always dangerous for me ;-) Compartmentalisation has many flavours: it goes from behaving differently depending on who you are with, a thing we all do, consciously or not, to living different lives. It has many causes too: from it being part of your job, to a comfort option you choose to be polite. Whatever the how and why, doing it is not that hard when you have the right aptitude and, possibly, training. It is in fact surprisingly easy. The trouble comes when you have to merge: filling these blank spots in your live, your CV, telling without compromising. This is what they never tell you: you may go back, but never fully. Up to a point, there will always be a part of your backstory you will have to stick to, however small it is. The trouble is that a backstory is just a mean to an end. And you do not want to be just a mean.
Except if you are a true bastard, of course ;-)
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