Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished

It just came to my attention yesterday that a very wise and seasoned gentleman that I've had the pleasure to work with for the past few years will be retiring several weeks from now.  I have a lot of respect for Bruce and I do wish him the best of luck and health for his retirement.  However, I will miss his professionalism, wise counsel and well-placed smart-ass comments here at work! 

I clearly remember a time not too long ago, right after I had successfully led a very complex task involving many people to closure.  At this time, another tough task needed to be done and Bruce came to me with his characteristic smirk on his face and said, "Mae, let no good deed go unpunished".  He then proceeded to tell me that management was wanting for me to lead this tough new task.

His very words are the subject of my blog today, but don't pertain to my working environment. Over the past decade or so, I've bent over backwards to ensure the very best of care and feeding for a person close to me and their family.  Throughout most of this time,  I put my own wants and needs last in order to take care of them and make them happy.  As always in life, there was some rough and easy sailing throughout that decade. But that was all made possible because I truly believed that there was mutual trust and respect to back it up.

As life has it, during the past couple of years some things came my way that prompted a need for me to reach out to find a good friend or two. Once this happened, I found out that the mutual trust and respect that I thought was at my back was largely conditional.  Those conditions strictly entailed that I not have any friends or interests outside of an invisible circle that had been drawn around the group of people I had taken care of during the past decade. 

How dare I have wants and needs that didn't adhere to these conditions!

Needless to say, it's been very tough sailing lately and I don't think that there will ever be another clearing on this course that I've been following for the past decade.  The only thing that I can say right now is a direct quotation of Bruce's words:

"Mae, let no good deed go unpunished!"

Bruce, your wise words have reached beyond the boundaries of work and into the epicenter of my life!  However, this time I'm going to decline taking on another tough task   I think I'm going to set my course for some smooth sailing . . . one with solid trust and respect to keep it on the right path.

I'm setting my course for Smooth Sailing!