Backup, on Backup

I was a very good second. I am telling you this not to diminish the work of being second, which is often the most important work in the building. I am telling you because I recognized, later than I should have, that I had confused the position with the identity.

There are things I would have done differently, earlier, if I had not been waiting for someone to notice I was ready. The waiting looked like patience. It was partly fear. The fear of the front of the room. The fear of being fully visible in a place where I could not control whether I stayed.

The ekerentane learns to stay small because small things are not expelled. But you are not a small thing. You are a person who has been playing small because the stakes of playing large seemed too high at the time they were decided.

The stakes have changed. The village is a long time ago.

The front of the room is available. The question is whether you will walk up to it or wait to be invited again.

— Job