Fronts

“You can’t get mad about weather, because weather’s not about you.”

–     Doug Coupland (b. 1961, a very good year) Canadian novelist and writer

Most other things aren’t about us, either.

“Fronts,” the phrase weather forecasters use to refer to the leading edge of a change in weather conditions, happen multiple times per month.

Invariably, Canada (no word whether Mr. Coupland is behind it or not) sends us a heapin’ helping of cold, dry air, which collides with some warm, very moist air from the Gulf of Mexico, and something big happens for a few hours.

This week…today, we’re getting our first really big “winter front.”  (PS  I hate it that they name everything in weather today.  Hurricanes?  OK.  4″ of snow?  Just a nice morning in Wisconsin…)  Sometimes it’s a warm front and sometimes it’s a cold front, and not just when it comes to weather.

A cold front can happen at work, too.  A colleague stops talking to us.  Our boss shuts down two of our projects.  Our best friend at work makes a major mistake and we get implicated by relationship. Someone commits a Rule #5 violation and the whole department feels like we should raid the grocery store for canned goods and flashlight batteries, and hunker down for a week-long blizzard.

A warm front can happen at work, too.  A rival befriends us.  Someone in another department points to our department ands says, “Hey, they “get it!”  Our boss calls us in and says, “You’ve been killing it here, take a long weekend and go (hunt, fish, play golf, shop, hit the beach, etc”…you get the point.

Just like the weather fronts, the conditions will change a little bit the day before, the day of and the day after a “work front” comes through.  We may need to metaphorically shovel, or apply some sun screen.  We may need to change the tires on the car, or make sure the sun roof still functions.

But it’s alwys temporary, and it’s almost never about us.

Two cautions:

First, we will almost never know what is going on in the other person’s life — really.  Is someone sick?  Did someone die?  Is there a squabble or a fight at home?  Was someone raised by an abusive parent or are they in an abusive relationship?  Are they euphorically “high” today, because they kicked an addiction yesterday, or has an addiction come back today to snatch their energy and sense of self-worth?  Are they newly in-love, newly estranged, feeling well, not feeling well…?

Second, are we aware of what’s causing our own “fronts.”  Did one of the kids spill their breakfast? Did our neighbor blow his snow on to our driveway?  Did the kid at the grocery store put the milk on top of the bread? Did the dog get in to the pantry and eat two loaves of bread before lunches were made for school (yes, it has happened)….?

We never know.  Except that we know it’s not about us.  And that it will pass…  And that today’s sun and shirt-sleeves will be replaced by umbrellas and boots tomorrow, followed by jackets and stocking caps a while after that, and that, as little-orphan-Annie, reminds us, the sun will come up tomorrow.

Fronts come, fronts go — difference makers prepare for and navigate them with eyes focused firmly on what comes next.