Like many Americans joining in Super Bowl fun, my family rushed off the mountain from a day of skiing to catch a feted event at a friend’s house. This ritual of gathering with friends is ingrained in our behavior, so we usually accept a party invite and enjoy the personal chit chat whilst our kids play. But this time, I hadn’t realized it would be me and a bunch of dudes. Not that I don’t love dudes but really, where were the mamas? And then, it was a different cohort – not our usual crowd. So I had to warm up and get curious about who these dudes were- how they knew our friend Bill, and what their interests were. We didn’t get into the “career” discussion until close to halftime, and I wasn’t too surprised to hear Pete say he’s changed careers once already and is interested in switching again, but was saddened to learn that Kyle is dealing with a divorce and needing to reinvent himself as a working, single dad. Our friend Bill just got full custody of his kids as a single parent and so immediate empathy was high in this crowd.
Mostly during commercial time (because the dudes were doing a fair bit of cheering for the Broncos) Kyle shared the intimate details of the breakup and how he’s trying to manage. He has been Mr. Mom, the stay-at-home dad and now has to figure out how to pay the mortgage and make money after being out of the workforce for close to a decade. Talk about role reversal. My thought jumped to how many men are now experiencing what women have been faced with before it was “normal” to work. In fact, within my network, I know a lot of women who are the higher income earners, and probably just as many who have had to choose to go back to work after the kids were in elementary school, and try to repackage themselves and freshen up their resumes.
So, IF we were to imagine a way to help folks reinvent themselves, how might we help them to become more curious about themselves AND then to start to learn as much about the world as they could with unjaded eyes? Almost like Grade 1 all over again.
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