I went into Boston yesterday, the 13th of October, by train to attend an all day seminar.  South Station was my favorite part.  There’s a protest going on right outside the big doors of South Station in Dewey Square.

It is supposedly a protest, similar to the one in NYC, peacefully protesting against financial inequities.  As best I could see just walking by was it was for sure peaceful (despite some arrests on Monday), mainly young folks with the exception of one woman I’ve pictured below taking a break with an ice cream cone from holding up her sign, very young people and some homeless folks of uncertain age.

Inside South Station in downtown Boston at 5 PM is much rowdier and energetic than the on-going protest in Dewey Square.  People swirl around you if you are stationary.

If they are not going by you, they all seem to be blurred with motion.

And, one thing I noticed this trip…everyone stands differently while waiting for a train.  Some are ramrod straight, shoulders squared.  Others, slouch.  And, then this woman, takes a wide stance, John Wayne wide stance, as if there was going to be a gunfight.  In this case, the gunfighter had red laces with a bow on her boots.

By Stevie Smith

Stevie Smith, “Not Waving but Drowning” from Collected Poems of Stevie Smith. Copyright © 1972 by Stevie Smith. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.

This poem, despite its gravity, makes me laugh.  How often do we communicate to someone and they misinterpret?  How often do we think we understand what someone is asking of us only to find out we were wrong.  It happens in personal as well as our business lives.

The stakes in this poem are life and death.  In business, the stakes are one time business or repeat business.

Creativity is the life-jacket that this poor chap, who loved larking, didn’t take with him.

Lesson learned.

Begin today.

Again.

Samuel Beckett would say “Fail better”.

Oh, Sammy.  You kill me.  You really do.

But, in a good way.