Musings at Altitude

I’ve spent the last 10 days averaging 4 hours of sleep per night, with my days equally divided between two very different locations.  The activities in both locations were uniquely meaningful, leading me to stay up late into the night digesting all the things that happened during each individual day.

The first 5 days were spent on a classic business development trip, enjoying the serenity of the far north, one of the most peaceful and beautiful places on this earth.  There, the sun didn’t really set, but it faded to that grayish hue that drops you into a trance like state that lasts till your body says, “go to bed”, while your mind says ‘keep on looking”.

The next 5 days were spent in the exact opposite setting of our nation’s capital, with increasingly warm temperatures, traffic congestion beyond description and anxiety driven by the stress of jobs and the critical importance of the otherwise routine happening of the various offices of government.

Both environments though were intoxicating.  One because of the staggering peace that I found in the company and the environment, and the other because of the bugle screaming “charge” in a business battle that could ultimately (through ill informed acts of legislation) take away the accelerant to growth that resulted in much needed benefits to the owners of our company.

I spent an equal amount of time smiling in both environments – the first because of the connection that our visitors made to our real mission as a business, and the second because of the dysfunction of our opponent matched up against our intense preparation and response to their pre-determined attack.

As I sit here now at 37,000 feet, the lack of sleep is catching up with me, but the smile is still there.  In these 10 days, we showed several people in this rapidly shrinking world what it’s like to be connected to the land for your very survival.  And then we showed several other people the fight that we’ll bring if they prolong this attack and try to limit or deny our ability to deliver ever increasing benefits to those very people that are intimately connected to that land.

So I’ll be home tonight, still stoked by 10 days of serenity followed by intensity, and I’ll finally fall into a deep sleep.  And I bet I’ll dream of the unmistakable quiet and unarguable beauty of the lands north of the Arctic Circle, transitioning quickly to the uncomfortable tension and unbearable chaos of our nation’s capital.