November 2002  

An Angle of Repose in Unsettling Times

by Jan Michels
WSBA Executive Director
janm@wsba.org

During the past week, I have talked with my friends Anaïs Winant, vice-president of the Seattle-King County Convention and Visitor's Bureau; Jan Levy, executive director of Leadership Tomorrow; and Marcia Holland-Risch, executive director of the Washington Society of CPAs. We are all experiencing the same demanding, stressful and overwhelming workload. I'm speculating that we are not alone. Harder economic times tighten everything. Fashion becomes conservative, hemlines get longer; wages and benefits freeze, consumers delay purchases, everyone thinks longer before incurring debt or risk; and there is more reluctance to make commitments. People hold back to do what matters most.

The man I married just out of college, lived with during my "hippie" years, divorced 25 years ago, and had no contact with for the last 15 years, recently called. He was experiencing his own personal downturn in prosperity and wanted a brief connection to old times.

The Board of Governors has decided to restrict growth in license fees and programs for the years 2004-2006. Their annual evaluation of me suggested that I learn to say "no" when the WSBA cannot take on new projects and initiatives without staff or fiscal increases.

The hard times are settling in, not just for a post-September episode, but for a full-market downturn and overall market correction. We're in for a long haul. With these conditions we can expect to do more without additional resources. We can expect more anxiety and stress. We need friends and family and spirituality, however we choose to express it, to find a new angle of repose.

WSBA staff and I experienced the sudden and unexpected loss of one of us in September. Clare Cox, our desktop publisher, died. We were left feeling we wanted to thank and appreciate each other more — wanting community and family and friends, an angle of repose against fragility.

The paradigms we had grown accustomed to — the '50s and the "greatest generation," the '60s sense of "freedom and exploration," the '70s and '80s sense of "self-care and personal purpose," and even the '90s "newest professionals" with their realistic and pragmatic approach — have been replaced by unsettling times. The '00s appear to call for restraint — centrifugal forces toward comforts and essentials.

My husband interrupted me as I was writing this article, and we shared a long hug and a few words of love. These are unsettling times, things are different, and we don't know what will happen next. We're frightened of, whether we favor it or not, a possible confrontation with Iraq that may bring intended and unintended consequences. My 84-year-old mother's simple phrase about Roosevelt's December 1941 declaration of war against Japan and Germany (she was 23 at the time and engaged to a medical student in Chicago) rings clearly to me: "We all knew things would never be the same again."

These are unsettling times and many of us are nervous, anxious or stressed. A bubble of optimism and invulnerability has burst, and our collective identity is searching for new definition. The child in me doesn't like it, gets angry and resistant. My grownup self is scared, more cautious, and more conservative. I'm more social than usual, drawn to my friends for solace and comfort. An era seems to have passed, and I seek a new angle of repose.

The WSBA is an association of 27,000 members who share common dedication to the preservation of an orderly social contract. That focus and our attention to the higher moral order will keep us in focus on what truly matters. We will ride this tide of uncertainty and change. While nothing may ever be the same again, we can recommit ourselves to the rule of law, integrity, friendship and family. 

A new angle of repose.