job satisfaction

High on the endorphins of my first ever salsa class, I had a little epiphany as I came home tonight. My job(s) right now all involve facilitating some form of fun. Being a fun-maker has become my specialty.

At work today, we offered our first salsa class for the tenants, something I've wanted to have in the building for a long time. And I was pleased with the turnout -- six people, men and women of different ages and abilities, all seeming to enjoy themselves, not wanting to stop when the time was up. On its best days, my job is all about this: bringing people together, allowing them to get to know one another, to explore their creativity, building trust, having a great time. On Monday, I facilitated a fabulous session of our long-running Drama Group in which our tenants were reading free-writing that they'd done about their family history and then everyone was up on their feet acting out the characters. We have a tight-knit group now and I'm amazed at the lack of hesitation and unself-consciousness of these people who have never been trained as performers.

It's rubbed off elsewhere in my life. I am paid to be a professional party-planner, and then, last Sunday for the Oscars, I planned my own personal party (by far the largest crowd I've ever had). I brought more people together, fed them, tried to keep them entertained and intermingling.

I growing comfortable in that role of "facilitator" or "prompter" -- pushing people to expand their boundaries, to become creative. My theater projects recently have been with young people and they've mostly involved me making them comfortable so that they can create, not teaching or directing so much as coaxing them into offering something of themselves up for the group. Even in this new project that I'm working on with Kyle, Desiree, and Michael, I'm fulfilling that same role -- not writing the script but creating "assignments" for Des and Michael, trying to come up with prompts for their creativity, to spur them on.

It's easier than ever these days for me to talk to people, all kinds of people. I think it's a sort of occupational fringe benefit. What does this mean about where my career is headed? No longer an auteur, instead a sous-chef stirring the pot, getting all the flavors to mix? Not exactly, I can still be individiually creative when I have to. And there's always a certain amount of healthy egotism involved in leading a group. But I'm learning methods of collaboration. I'm learning patience and trust. As job skills go, those are pretty good ones.