Office Interruptus

From the February 2016 issue of The Rotarian

Two decades ago, I got into a terrible fight with my best friend, a guy I’ll call Craig. The proximate cause was a diatribe Craig directed at me during a meeting of our newspaper staff.

His attack was not unprovoked. I felt the meeting was running long and began to grumble about it. But the harsh tone of his response was completely out of character. Craig was not only a gentle guy. He was also my editor and mentor. For years, we had worked late on stories, then snuck off to play cards together. I couldn’t fathom why he was humiliating me in such a public way.

It took me several years to realize the true source of his anger: A few days before that meeting, I had told Craig I was leaving our newspaper to return to graduate school. What I received wasn’t just a professional rebuke, in other words. It was also punishment for a personal betrayal.