To Meet or Not

Hamlet, we thought, said it all – ‘To be or not to be; that is the question.”

Well, it seems there are a lot of ‘or not’s’ in our lives!

I have a friend, colleague, compatriot, who consistently makes appointments to meet but then cancels. Over and over again. Sometimes we do catch up with one another and actually meet. But rare are those times.

When I report he consistently does this, I mean he really consistently misses the very appointments he makes himself. He sets the day and time. But nearly always calls early in the morning (usually when I’m in the shower) and cancels. He does request a make up date but those, too, are cancelled.

This has been going on for seven years. That’s the time period I’ve known him. And the meetings are important – business sessions to discuss a key problem or challenge we need to overcome to survive, let alone succeed. Or maybe it is a personal matter he feels I’m hung up on and should repair if I am to continue to be a productive partner in our business association.

Quite often, however, there is another topic he wishes to discuss. I don’t know what it is. He keeps cancelling meetings so I am yet in the dark on this matter.

Seven years of this. Maybe twice a month throughout the year. That’s 24 times per year for seven years for a total of 168 cancelled meetings. You note the pattern! I do not exaggerate. Trust me on this!

So what to do. I’ve tried not returning his calls requesting a make up date. I’ve tried mild blustering to chastise him on this behavior. I’ve even lost my temper and gave him a big piece of my mind!  Well, perhaps that action on my part is not as threatening as it would be for others! Evidently this is true because whatever action I take his appointment cancelling continues.

Important matters have fallen by the wayside. Our business actually did fail. He often was unable to do research or background digging to come up with possible solutions to our problems. The rest of us did the same in other endeavors of problem solving. He rarely came through with the results of his assignments.

So too the meetings cancelled. Most never were rescheduled. Those agendas are dust motes in the wind. Perchance that is the cause of the latest El Nino? Droughts of the West and Southwest USA might be hanging in the balance from this cause? Will we ever know?

No. I think not. And in the broad range of issues facing mankind these days, this is a tiny blip on the radar screen.

So one sets it all aside. We go on to other matters. Matters that we can actually do something about.

Yet one does wonder at the missing data. I wonder what he wanted to talk about so badly that he kept putting it off?

I think we shall never know. Such are the mysteries of life. Simon says so!

June 2, 2015