Building relationship IS part of recovery

  It was a major discovery in the 1990s to realize that "relationship" had to do with "recovery".  It was why we organized networking dinners without alcohol.  Many "small businesses" were just ideas and seeds at first.  And even people in the midst of divorce and devastation could understand, more objectively, that seeds need water and soil and sunlight.  There's a relationship there.  Or not.

  "Work-life-balance" hadn't been a thing, certainly not for the working poor.  And we had to overcome being raised up as servants and taken advantage of and even abused in/within ourselves as we were adjusting to the equalities of being professional.

  Of course there was no way around giant issues which people had been boxing and slapping labels on--GENDER, RACE, SEXUALITY, RELIGION....all the diversity had been labeled and people had been mastering CAUTION, CAUTION about personality.  And bringing things up.

  All this stuffing stuff down, ignoring, and denial lent itself to a stiff structure between management and "worker", and/or wrestling over job duties for team.  Kind of like the infighting in D.C.

  Is we is or is we ain't a team?  Some Knoxvillians reinvigorating jazz culture and working in retail and restaurant kept asking.  And that asking each other was checking in on relationship.  It was also more "give" than just showing up.  And, it was: Let's take the high road here.

  We can do it together.

  But it's a professional relationship.

  Silence.  Assuming something else?

  My MAN....

  Suddenly, everyone had a man!  Even manly men.  Stumbled through awkward for me parts of the over-talkative exuberance about getting on with life, around gaffes, with "saves" like, "Yeah, I gotta guy for that."

  Fighting crime and drugs just sort of happened most days as we all made a safety-net of professionalism.