What Must Be Done

 314.

"Attitude is everything?" She offers en passant.

"If it's not it'll due until something better comes along," I counter, overjoyed to be back in such a fertile intellectual environment, "these days I try to bring a little compassion laced optimism to every conversation."

"You should either teach or consult, then, 'cause we are up to our elbows in paperwork, and it appears as if the dam is about to break."

"Meaning?"

"I have a meeting with the deputy chair of Homeland at 1430. Word on the street has it that they are already set to move 'in another direction', and with Hartaugh out, the odds are 50/50 that we might be as well."

"Even after we…"

"…Had another terrorist bombing, this time taking 29 innocents, as we operated an illegal sting operation designed to net one of their own?" She snaps.

"Two sides to every story, are we ahead of the internal PR?" I ask with sincerity.

"I have to get this report out asap so you might check with Harlan for the details on that, please," She says softening.

"I will thanks."

She was right. We had created a nasty political optic with the take-down of Hartaugh, long considered untouchable, the vanguard of Blue Blood Southern conservatism. It was anyone's guess as to how long it would take his replacement as chair of the committee to discover the true off-book nature of our charter. Julie, Harlan and myself had already agreed to continue the status-quo until instructed otherwise, a tactic that immediately created another layer of complexity around an already tightly-wound pack of operational explosives.

I am standing in the foyer considering the wisdom behind "Simply do what must be done," a useful altruistic meme I lifted from a marvelous book called 'Playing Ball on Running Water' by David K. Reynolds in which he details the myriad benefits of Morita psychotherapy, when Mina runs in holding up the sign that I commissioned with nothing more than a smile and a polite request.

100% FOCUS AND
EYES ON DETAIL
IN ENGLISH.


"A winner in any language my dear, merci, gracias, danke, salamat po. Outstanding effort."

I take her poster into the conference room and proudly tack it to the wall for all to see and enjoy, doing, I affirm, "what must be done."