This morning I was at my desk by 5:15 am. Beth, Gary and I are preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide professional development programs to a county in New York. An RFP is like a grant application. If you’ve never done one of those, it’s like filling out forms at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Passport Office and a medical questionnaire rolled into one. Basically, it sucks, and in the end there’s no guarantee that you will get the job. None.
I understand yada, yada, yada the need for yada, yada, yada transparency and competency yada, yada, yada, but it still sucks to spend days organizing, writing, re-writing and determining what the difference between a goal and an objective is or determining how many methods of instruction are necessary to encourage a teacher to sing to her students.
Apparently, Twyla Tharp, the renowned choregrapher, once wrote on a grant application, “I’m a dancer, not a grant writer. Send money! Love, Twyla.” I like that story.
I’m being a bit whiny about this because I need to vent, okay? Venting is something I have almost never done, so I’m trying it out. My wife is a Reiki Master but she’s also a Master Venter. I know it, my children know it and so do the neighbors. Beth, like many women, is expert at blowing off steam and that’s something we guys have almost no training in. Culturally, we are taught to suck it up. Well, that stops here and now.
BORING, STUPID BUSY WORK IS A FRIGGIN WASTE OF MY ENERGY AND TIME! I AM A TEACHING ARTIST, NOT A BOOKKEEPER OR A PERSON WHO WANTS TO REMAIN ON HOLD FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE “PROFESSIONALS” WHO SAY THEY REALLY CARE ABOUT ME BUT WHO DO NOT KNOW THEIR BUTTS FROM THEIR ELBOWS AND DID I MENTION I AM TIRED OF THE TWO YEARS WE SPEND PICKING A PRESIDENT IN THIS COUNTRY THAT PRIMARILY BENEFITS ADVERTISING COMPANIES AND TV STATIONS!?
That was good for me. Evidently, I am carrying around some anger and frustration and it’s not good to let it fester.
If Kamala Harris gets elected, she promises joy, but I am guessing that there will be Press Briefings and an occasional Oval Office Venting Session. And why not? Where is it written that leaders have to always be the ones who keep their shit together?
I once heard that a guy in New York City rented a phone line and encouraged people to call the number and complain. Initially, I think he answered the phone, but the calls got so numerous and lengthy that he had to let calls go to his answering service. Memory tells me the phone company made him shut it down due to the volume of calls.
When 9-11 happened, the buzz in NY was “do not, under any circumstances, discuss the grievances of the terrorists. To do so is unAmerican.” Remember everyone with American flags on their cars? The culture told us “Shut up and hate people from Iraq.” And then we invaded a country that had nothing to do with that horrible event. During that period, I wore a button that said, “Democracy is Dissent” and protested the war. It felt right.
I mention this because we do need to speak even if it’s uncomfortable for us, the people we love or the President. That’s one of the reasons I became a writer, performer and teacher. I’ve got things to say. (And most of them are benign and encouraging, thankfully.)
But I defend your right to say anything with one codicil: as my friend and mentor David Murphy taught me, “Be honest, not brutal.” I like that.
So, let me say that I do not like long RFPs. I would like the people designing them and other forms and questionnaires to consider, “How can we make this as brief as possible while still getting the most important information we need?”
There. I’m done. Back to work.
