The President, deep in thought for a few seconds, replied,
“…the climate change that we must fight for, in the action and the coalition that we must embrace and foster upon. We must unite in the name of the indivisible congregation of the crowd, under the divinity of the Constitution that we must uphold. Creation of jobs will be enabled by saving the environment, a protection of which upholds the utmost importance, and we will continue to exert the hard work and hold our actions to the highest level of accountability possible.”
The panel moderator interjected in the middle of the president’s speech, saying “…but Mr. President,” continued the moderator, “…we just asked you what day of the week it was.”
Bee Merry Company is a leading producer of avant-garde honey. Bee Merry Co. has been thriving at an astronomical rate: +12% sales quarter-to-quarter for the past three years. Just crazy growth. Since its humble beginnings, the company has now grown large, alluring flocks of investors to chip in money. The investment has enabled Queen Bee, the “q-bee”, and her relentlessly diligent honeybees to invest in honey production equipment, nectar storage units, and beehive expansion.
The Queen seemed pleased, the investors seemed pleased – everyone seemed pleased. It was soon revealed to be a blessing and a curse.
Chapter 2
This quarter, for the first time in many years, the sales growth was a “measly” +0.5%. Investors called the growth “measly”, but Bee Merry Co. is one of the few that managed to keep its head above the water. In fact, half of the other beehives just filed bankruptcy.
Nonetheless, shareholders were not pleased. Shareholders were too used to continued growth. To these shareholders, staying afloat, slowed growth, shrunk size… all manifested as a signal of stagnation.
Investors asked the Q-bee what she plans to do. Q-bee remained calm, but to address hundreds of thousands of investors was no joke. And the shareholders. And the media. Everyone badly craved for shiny, happy numbers. Those were the only numbers everyone has seen. Inevitably, Queen Bee’s calmness gradually turned into a whirlwind of uneasiness and anxiety.
Queen Bee could do nothing but to reluctantly reiterate with a qualified optimism, that “the company has a bright future.”
Chapter 3
Later in the same day, the Queen Bee gathered everyone. To continue the trend of “happy” growth, cutting nonessential parts of operations was essential.
The company congregated again in a few days.
Chapter 4
There was a huge crowd. Everyone knew the continued growth and the “impact” (whatever that meant) were pivotal to company’s “happiness” (again whatever that meant).
During the meeting, each representative bee from each department stepped forward. Each bee’s job was to speak proudly and confidently to each team’s splendid, jaw-dropping accomplishments. This was pivotal for the team’s visibility, reputation, their impact, and – indirectly – their survival.
Nectar innovation team stepped up first, “this year, our team introduced a bright orange-colored honey, supplementing the traditional regular orange-colored honey.” The representing bee continued, “this new pigment has driven $700M in sales this year.”
The board and the investors were blinded by the shiny numbers. Investors nodded fervently and whispered among themselves with optimism. There were two questions from the crowd – the first question was rather peripheral. The second question arose from a skeptical audience, who angrily discounted the validity of the “$700M”. However, investors and the board were both happy; and their happiness was the only valid happiness in the room.
Honey packaging team stepped up next. “We the honey packaging team…” the honey packaging head continued, “
Then followed other teams, such as ‘human-bee relations team’, who likewise shared numbers that excited the crowd. Every team
Finally, the larvae team head stepped in.
“We have hatched and nurtured thousands of newborn bees, our next generation of honey-makers.”
“Okay, thank you,” VP-bee commented, “but what’s the impact?”
Larvae head thought to himself, “Seriously? You want to put g**damn numbers for these newborns?” But that would be an unacceptable etiquette that would ruin the congregational glee, so he had to push aside his emotions.
Chapter 5
The next morning, the q-bee noticed a resignation letter slipped under the door. It was from an e-bee, an engineering bee who stuck with the company the longest (40 bee-years, to be precise).
q-bee asked the e-bee to come up to her chamber.
Chapter 6
The e-bee entered the chamber of q-bee, who sat in her chair curious, anguished, and exhausted.
“So, tell me why you are leaving,” asked the q-bee.
e-bee guffawed, “Please! What do you want to know?”
“Our sales might have dropped this year, but look how far we have come. This is THE happiest place that you could work at.“
e-bee: “I am concerned about you. Are you fawning your happiness?”
q-bee sat astounded by e-bee’s comment.
e-bee: “Why don’t you ship crates of larvae off if doing so is profitable?”
q-bee: “You are quite dashing this morning.“
e-bee: “Okay, so it seems like there are untouchable boundaries.“
q-bee: “…”
e-bee: “Let me ask you a question,” e-bee paused, “What does the company exactly need the money for?”
……..
e-bee: “I am not here to have some capitalism vs. socialism argument. Profit, I get that – the company starves without it.” e-bee, organizing his thoughts, continued, “But I walk into many meetings – many, many of which are utterly unnecessary, I think – to ONLY hear people talking about, (a) how much can we make, and (b) how quick we can do things around.“
q-bee tried hard understanding where e-bee’s
e-bee: “We are bees. And I am an engineer. I am not
q-bee: “Are you saying that I do not understand engineers because I somehow sat in my queen chamber for my whole life?”
e-bee, chuckling, replied, “Hah, that won’t be fair. That’d be nonsense. I don’t expect you to build stuff.”
e-bee continued, “…but your job isn’t making lumps of cash drizzle off of our hive. Your job is to oversee the larvae.”
“And I can’t say it nicely. I am a blunt bee. Yesterday, sadly and ironically, you killed exactly what you were supposed to do.”
“You might be great at what you do, but you aren’t quite good at who you’re supposed to be.”
It was not hard for q-bee to feel how heavy the air was. At that point, q-bee exuded none of anger, frustration, or (ANY OF THE
q-bee collected her breath, “let me ask you then,” q-bee asked cautiously, “when did things start going off?”
e-bee had to think
q-bee asked “When?”
“…since
q-bee: “How?”
e-bee: “You know, throughout my 30 bee-years of my engineering career, there surely were ups and downs. It’s natural – you have sunny days, and you have cloudy days. And my sunny days could be your cloudy days, and your cloudy days could be some other bee’s day full of insurmountable snowstorm.”
…so, how is it that the company expects us to be happy, lofty, full of rainbows, honeys drizzling, …, whatever. Sure, nobody will put a gun against our heads to smile forcibly at all times. But this is absurd. If we have
Chapter 7
The following week, massive waves of layoffs began. Ultimately, half of others were let go too, leaving the queen by herself.
And nobody knew who the Bee Merry Co. was anymore. Other bees knew what the company did – but little was known what it really was. Then there was a big flood, which readily engulfed the whole beehive and wiped it off the face of the earth. Now Bee Merry Co. has been rendered history.
Bee Merry Company is a leading producer of avant-garde honey. Bee Merry Co. has been thriving at an astronomical rate: +12% sales quarter-to-quarter for the past three years. Just crazy growth. Since its humble beginnings, the company has now grown large, alluring flocks of investors to chip in money. The investment has enabled Queen Bee, the “q-bee”, and her relentlessly diligent honeybees to invest in honey production equipment, nectar storage units, and beehive expansion.
The Queen seemed pleased, the investors seemed pleased – everyone seemed pleased. It was soon revealed to be a blessing and a curse.
Chapter 2
This quarter, for the first time in many years, the sales growth was a “measly” +0.5%. Investors called the growth “measly”, but Bee Merry Co. is one of the few that managed to keep its head above the water. In fact, half of the other beehives just filed bankruptcy.
Nonetheless, shareholders were not pleased. Shareholders were too used to continued growth. To these shareholders, staying afloat, slowed growth, shrunk size… all manifested as a signal of stagnation.
Investors asked the Q-bee what she plans to do. Q-bee remained calm, but to address hundreds of thousands of investors was no joke. And the shareholders. And the media. Everyone badly craved for shiny, happy numbers. Those were the only numbers everyone has seen. Inevitably, Queen Bee’s calmness gradually turned into a whirlwind of uneasiness and anxiety.
Queen Bee could do nothing but to reluctantly reiterate with a qualified optimism, that “the company has a bright future.”
Chapter 3
Later in the same day, the Queen Bee gathered everyone. To continue the trend of “happy” growth, cutting nonessential parts of operations was essential.
The company congregated again in a few days.
Chapter 4
There was a huge crowd. Everyone knew the continued growth and the “impact” (whatever that meant) were pivotal to company’s “happiness” (again whatever that meant).
During the meeting, each representative bee from each department stepped forward. Each bee’s job was to speak proudly and confidently to each team’s splendid, jaw-dropping accomplishments. This was pivotal for the team’s visibility, reputation, their impact, and – indirectly – their survival.
Nectar innovation team stepped up first, “this year, our team introduced a bright orange-colored honey, supplementing the traditional regular orange-colored honey.” The representing bee continued, “this new pigment has driven $700M in sales this year.”
The board and the investors were blinded by the shiny numbers. Investors nodded fervently and whispered among themselves with optimism. There were two questions from the crowd – the first question was rather peripheral. The second question arose from a skeptical audience, who angrily discounted the validity of the “$700M”. However, investors and the board were both happy; and their happiness was the only valid happiness in the room.
Honey packaging team stepped up next. “We the honey packaging team…” the honey packaging head continued, “
Then followed other teams, such as ‘human-bee relations team’, who likewise shared numbers that excited the crowd. Every team
Finally, the larvae team head stepped in.
“We have hatched and nurtured thousands of newborn bees, our next generation of honey-makers.”
“Okay, thank you,” VP-bee commented, “but what’s the impact?”
Larvae head thought to himself, “Seriously? You want to put g**damn numbers for these newborns?” But that would be an unacceptable etiquette that would ruin the congregational glee, so he had to push aside his emotions.
Chapter 5
The next morning, the q-bee noticed a resignation letter slipped under the door. It was from an e-bee, an engineering bee who stuck with the company the longest (40 bee-years, to be precise).
q-bee asked the e-bee to come up to her chamber.
Chapter 6
The e-bee entered the chamber of q-bee, who sat in her chair curious, anguished, and exhausted.
“So, tell me why you are leaving,” asked the q-bee.
e-bee guffawed, “Please! What do you want to know?”
“Our sales might have dropped this year, but look how far we have come. This is THE happiest place that you could work at.“
e-bee: “I am concerned about you. Are you fawning your happiness?”
q-bee sat astounded by e-bee’s comment.
e-bee: “Why don’t you ship crates of larvae off if doing so is profitable?”
q-bee: “You are quite dashing this morning.“
e-bee: “Okay, so it seems like there are untouchable boundaries.“
q-bee: “…”
e-bee: “Let me ask you a question,” e-bee paused, “What does the company exactly need the money for?”
……..
e-bee: “I am not here to have some capitalism vs. socialism argument. Profit, I get that – the company starves without it.” e-bee, organizing his thoughts, continued, “But I walk into many meetings – many, many of which are utterly unnecessary, I think – to ONLY hear people talking about, (a) how much can we make, and (b) how quick we can do things around.“
q-bee tried hard understanding where e-bee’s
e-bee: “We are bees. And I am an engineer. I am not
q-bee: “Are you saying that I do not understand engineers because I somehow sat in my queen chamber for my whole life?”
e-bee, chuckling, replied, “Hah, that won’t be fair. That’d be nonsense. I don’t expect you to build stuff.”
e-bee continued, “…but your job isn’t making lumps of cash drizzle off of our hive. Your job is to oversee the larvae.”
“And I can’t say it nicely. I am a blunt bee. Yesterday, sadly and ironically, you killed exactly what you were supposed to do.”
“You might be great at what you do, but you aren’t quite good at who you’re supposed to be.”
It was not hard for q-bee to feel how heavy the air was. At that point, q-bee exuded none of anger, frustration, or (ANY OF THE
q-bee collected her breath, “let me ask you then,” q-bee asked cautiously, “when did things start going off?”
e-bee had to think
q-bee asked “When?”
“…since
q-bee: “How?”
e-bee: “You know, throughout my 30 bee-years of my engineering career, there surely were ups and downs. It’s natural – you have sunny days, and you have cloudy days. And my sunny days could be your cloudy days, and your cloudy days could be some other bee’s day full of insurmountable snowstorm.”
…so, how is it that the company expects us to be happy, lofty, full of rainbows, honeys drizzling, …, whatever. Sure, nobody will put a gun against our heads to smile forcibly at all times. But this is absurd. If we have
Chapter 7
The following week, massive waves of layoffs began. Ultimately, half of others were let go too, leaving the queen by herself.
And nobody knew who the Bee Merry Co. was anymore. Other bees knew what the company did – but little was known what it really was. Then there was a big flood, which readily engulfed the whole beehive and wiped it off the face of the earth. Now Bee Merry Co. has been rendered history.
Adapted from my Medium article: https://moonsoo-choi.medium.com/life-liberty-and-the-pursuit-of-happiness-and-exhaustion-e87998b5a5b
Declaration of Independence
Did you know that these three ideals — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — are the fundamental pillars supporting the Declaration of Independence? These are the very concepts that gave birth to the ideology, political thoughts, and the fundamental rights of a new nation — they are meant to liberate us, so we can live our lives to the fullest.
Do they, though?
Who cares about the old-school Lockean philosophy if we don’t have ca$h and bread for our family?
WHO CARES about preaching liberty when the pandemic (and thanks to all the maskless wonderers) has locked us down?
We are all exhausted — 2020 was indeed a terrible year for everyone.
2020 probably wasn’t the best year to talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pandemic has mercilessly taken away countless lives. We are still fighting for greater equality and fighting against still-rampant racism throughout the US. Finally, all of us — left and right, old and young — are severely exhausted, and our efforts to sustain our sense of happiness seem tenuous at best.
To be candid, I am worried about the future of America.
We have truly reached out nadir — politics-wise, climate-wise, and morale-wise. Can we recover?
Founding Fathers were depressed, too.
Because there was little medical advancement in the 18th Century, little was known about various mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety. Nonetheless, when we map our current understanding of the mental health issues to what we know about the Founding Fathers, many pieces of evidence suggest the prevalence of depression and anxiety among the Founding Fathers.
Founding Fathers had the responsibility and undue hardship to chart out America’s path for the next few decades — if not the next few centuries — to come. The founding fathers had to define a completely new nation and had to distill the very definition of America into mere 1,313 words (Declaration of Independence) and 4,543 words (the Constitution). The most notable Founding Father who experienced mental health issues, for instance, is George Washington, who witnessed the passing of over 2,000 soldiers at the Valley Forge — where Washington was documented to have experienced hallucination and subsequently “saw” his older brother, Lawrence. John Adam’s diary was full of hints suggesting mania. Albeit born much later after the Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, I mean… his portraits scream the very definition of grim and melancholy.
…where do the similarities lie between us and Founding Fathers?
The similarity between the Founding Fathers and us?
I hypothesize that we are in the process of charting a completely unprecedented path - the one that never, ever existed in our history thus far - for the next few decades, if not centuries.
Needless to say, Covid-19 has certainly brought a wide spectrum of seismic changes. In August, a CDC report has documented a worrisome (specifically, quadrupled) increase in the rates of anxiety and depression. Surely, the pandemic has brought ample opportunities for reflection — not just on our career or financial decisions, but also on our life as a whole. And many of us have begun to recognize the utmost importance of taking care of ourselves, both physically and mentally.
One reason, perhaps, that we are experiencing many mental health issues is due to our desire to move forward and upward. When we encounter challenges, they ought to wear us off and leave scars here and there. Gradually, little by little, we will discover a sense of how we can shape the world to be better (and not necessarily in terms of coining our next tech gadget, like iPhone 27). There will be a greater life, liberty, and a sense of happiness waiting for us at the end of the dark tunnel for us all.
Happy 2021!
Citations:
Lazarus, Clifford N. “Mental Illness Was Unknown When the Constitution Was Written.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 13 Feb. 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/think-well/202002/mental-illness-was-unknown-when-the-constitution-was-written.
“What Did America’s Founding Fathers Know about Mental Illness?” Columbia University Global Mental Health Programs, 17 Nov. 2020, www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/what-did-americas-founding-fathers-know-about-mental-illness/.
“What Did America’s Founding Fathers Know about Mental Illness?” Columbia University Global Mental Health Programs, 17 Nov. 2020, www.cugmhp.org/five-on-friday/what-did-americas-founding-fathers-know-about-mental-illness/.
Adapted from my Medium article: https://moonsoo-choi.medium.com/openness-16d625e11124
I find it perennially impressive how early ballet trainees start their dancing tenure (and, yes, my dancing is graceless). Many commence at the age of seven, or even five — and the age of ten or twelve is often considered too tardy.
But how many of them get selected as the main swan in the Swan Lake? Clara and Fritz in The Nutcracker? How many of them have the resilience to brace through a series of never-ending training sessions and recitals, often carried with biting remarks and criticisms from their coaches? A study shows that a meager 10% of dancers eventually go onto become professional dancers — and only a handful of those dancers can make a living from dancing alone.
Many young trainees — once starry-eyed and bushy-tailed — eventually succumb to this harsh reality, and ultimately embark on a different career path.
What was once everything to those trainees, ultimately fades away as an excursion of the past.
But it doesn’t mean ballet is no longer part of those trainees, just because it is no longer their whole.
In fact, deviating away from dancing opens doors to other aspect to life. “While you sculpt, you talk, and they told me how hard they have to work in order to perform,”
I see that many of us are fueled by our visions. But how can we be driven by our visions when we do not have a clear picture of our visions? We unknowingly sculpt a narrow, pigeon-holed vision of what we think we would like to achieve and who we think we want to become. Our lenses through how we see the world are tinted yellow — or rose red, violet, teal, or your favorite color – without us knowing it.
Dogs falling in love is not too different from how humans fall in love. Love energizes the enervated, but it also enervates the invigorated - and sometimes the two happen simultaneously.
You’ll find this post in your _posts directory. Go ahead and edit it and re-build the site to see your changes. You can rebuild the site in many different ways, but the most common way is to run jekyll serve, which launches a web server and auto-regenerates your site when a file is updated.
Jekyll requires blog post files to be named according to the following format:
YEAR-MONTH-DAY-title.MARKUP
Where YEAR is a four-digit number, MONTH and DAY are both two-digit numbers, and MARKUP is the file extension representing the format used in the file. After that, include the necessary front matter. Take a look at the source for this post to get an idea about how it works.
Jekyll also offers powerful support for code snippets:
defprint_hi(name)puts"Hi, #{name}"endprint_hi('Tom')#=> prints 'Hi, Tom' to STDOUT.
Check out the Jekyll docs for more info on how to get the most out of Jekyll. File all bugs/feature requests at Jekyll’s GitHub repo. If you have questions, you can ask them on Jekyll Talk.
