This post comes with a rare dedication: To Ana, the singer, the software engineer, the bright one, the Spanish Lady.
'nugh christmessy emotions, here's the post.
Once upon a time, there was an odd fellow.
He was bouncing around Europe as an elf in nerds' toy factories. They made dreams of a better world and called them software.
He once told me all his belongings fit into two sports bags: what more do you need?
The lanky, adolescent appearance was deceptive, as each and every one of us found out when we played foozball against him. The long, dangling, seemingly uncoordinated arms tightened up like steel cables, the ever present smile gave way to a focused, earnest expression, and even the bottle glasses lost their cliche appearance for the duration of the game.
He wouldn't trash talk, like others did, you could tell he was just happy about a game well played, about tiny adjustments of the little plastic men on the bars, about a perfect forward of the ball to his team mate when we played in teams of two.
A couple of us got slightly fed up losing very time at foozball, so we invited him over to the air hockey table. And got just as thoroughly trashed.
It was fun, though.
And then there was the Christmas party, and we did Secret Santa. You could exchange gifts twice, and you could not refuse when someone asked.
We were all milling about, laughing, commenting on each other's gifts and any exchange, poking fun at people for not wanting the chocolate, for wanting too much chocolate, or for trading something they could give to their children.
And then he walked straight up the business unit director and asked to exchange gifts.
I don't recall what the presents were.
But I do recall that the people who witnessed this fell silent for a few seconds as we stood there and watched the hierarchy melt away for a short moment. The director did well and played by the Secret Santa rules without hesitation. What seemed a potentially awkward if not outright perilous social situation -- even a flat hierarchy is a hierarchy, you know -- was, well, nothing. Just an exchange between two people. It was so smooth and natural that not everybody noticed, though once the word spread, people did talk about it.
What happened to the odd fellow?
I have no idea.
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