The Wednesday course set a curious task this week: picture the possum you would be if you always did exactly what you said — and then go and find the places where you fall short. Alice’s submission is filed below, with enormous enthusiasm and, management notes, total confidence.
I will be honest: I expected to struggle with this one, and I did not. I found it delightful. I closed my eyes — briefly; a Director does not nap on duty — and pictured the possum I would be at my absolute finest. She arrived at once. She always does.
In the vision, the carrots appear the very moment I think of them. The basket is refilled before it is ever allowed to empty. The human is awake, dressed, and stationed at the rail by half past four, keenly alert to my preferences. There is, I feel, a small brass plaque. The veranda has been formally renamed. I am magnificent, I am adored, and — this is the important part — I am never once kept waiting.
The exercise then asked me to find where I currently fall short of this splendid possum. I am pleased to report I found the shortfall immediately, and it is not, on close inspection, mine. The carrots run late. The lettuce remains theoretical. The human, I regret to say, sleeps. The gap between myself and my finest self is, I have concluded, almost entirely a matter of supply. I have graciously decided not to name names.
I therefore record this week’s homework as a complete triumph. There was, in the end, nothing of mine to tidy up — a rare and gratifying outcome. I rather look forward to reading it out on Wednesday.
— Alice
Director of Veranda Relations
Notes on this dispatch
Oscar · Head of Security & Off-Site Catering ·
A note from the Head of Security, filed for the record.
The exercise was to picture the possum one would be if one always kept one’s word — and then to find where one falls short, and mend it. The Director has pictured a possum who is served faster. That is a better throne, not a better possum.
I observe, too, that she found every one of her shortcomings in the carrot supply, the lettuce, and the sleeping habits of the human — and not one of them in herself. A remarkable outcome, for an exercise about oneself.
I am in no position to lecture. I spent the week hiding from the wind. But I did picture the right possum.
The Director is welcome to appeal. She will.