focus - One Less Dog In The Hunt

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/holidays/christmas-ideas/a29729515/sears-wish-book-history/

It was originally about two inches thick. Later it dropped to half that size, but it was still filled with nearly anything you could imagine. JC Penney’s tried, but nothing could compete with the Sears Christmas catalog. The colorful, collection of each Christmas season’s dreams and wonders first published in 1933 with the name Sears Christmas Book. Richard Sears first published his original Sears Catalog in 1894, calling it a Book of Bargains. Around the country the Sears catalog was often referred to as the book of wishes. In 1968 Sears officially named the catalog the Christmas catalog the Sears Wish Book.

From ant farms to zeppelins, Holly Hobbie dolls to Red Ryder BB guns, it served as the research document for informed Christmas lists (complete with footnotes) from around the world. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that letters to Santa often included page numbers from the Sears Wish Book. The book was often perused over the season, as the dreams and goals changed. Folded page corners, circled item numbers, torn out pages left on the kitchen counter as subtle reminders, the book was definitely ready for the trash can by the time New Year’s day arrived.

So, I got the boot. I think I walked out of that building (escorted of course) in a tunnel. I had a feeling it was coming. We’d been warned there was some corporate restructuring that would impact those in my position. Crazy thing is, they warned us a week before they told us; let us dangle at the end of the hook so to speak. Simple courtesy or even humane treatment would have been to tell us what was happening and then tell us who got the axe. One swift cut, but no, bro.

http://clipart-library.com/clipart/1289443.htm

Anyway, my point isn’t to debate the heartlessness of corporate decision making. I mean to set up the feeling of walking out of a building where I had invested over half my life with no clear understanding of where I was headed. Of course, I had bills, a wife, a kid in college, and I was still at least ten years away from retirement. I was going to need some income, but I had no desire to enter into something I would be wanting out of in six months.

In that week where I dangled, I researched. The number one thing I found was encouragement to stay calm. Don’t Panic. Keep a perspective. Don’t rush into the first job you stumble upon. Therefore, on the trip from the building to my car, with the lump in my throat growing with each step, I forced myself to take deep breaths. I opened the door and dropped my few personal items from my desk into the passenger seat, and I sat… taking deep breaths. I was empty. I was stunned. I was lost. I was questioning, but I wasn’t panicking.

Tag: focus

Book of Wishes

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