The Mindfulness Blog

Ever since my last post, I've been playing the song by Brooks Benton, over and over, in my mind: A Rainy Night In Georgia. By now, I've learned that those kinds of things tend to happen for a reason, and I think I know what the reason is.

For the past 5 years I've posted a lot of pieces, detailing the various "business reasons" for implementing a workplace wellbeing initiative. More recently, I've become better educated about mental health, and begun advocating for affirmative action on the part of law firms and businesses in general to address that concern, as well-- wellbeing and mental health are, I believe, two sides of the same coin.

In the past few days, however, I've come around to the notion that the continuing reluctance of the professional world to recognize the growing importance of those two concerns is not because of the reasons advanced, or the uncertainties that Covid introduced. Rather, it's because of the mindset of the people to whom those reasons and uncertainties are directed.

Not coincidentally, most of those people are men-- guys with whom I share certain paraphernalia, but not a common point of view. I speak not only of the men who predominate positions in management, but also, the men who predominate so-called corner offices-- men who are concerned only with preserving the status quo until they decide to retire.

It's difficult to admit it, but I've been snookered. Small-minded "my way or the highway" men are everywhere-- all over the world. And they're not going away, any time soon. Being an older white guy, myself, I naively thought I could talk some sense into guys I once considered to be my chronological and professional peers-- quite obviously. I was wrong.

It's a rainy night, not only in Georgia, but pretty much everywhere else-- umbrella, anyone?