Thought Picnic: I've become small money man

Called to meet

I have found much amusement about my circumstances than I could care for having any self-pity, life is a story of events and milestones that we get to tell in many ways.

It just takes a few words to contextualise a situation, we might even call that a synopsis but to the affected, it carries more weight than the speaker or writer might have contemplated.

Out of the blue, I was invited to participate in some projects that I did find interesting with all the questions I had to mind about process, procedure and engagement, many of which were comfortably answered by the principal mover when we met.

Great and small

The discussion then moved on to other ideas that needed to gain traction filling in needs that appeared not to have been catered for, much of which seemed to make good sense and will definitely be worth exploring.

The end of the meeting included receiving some emails about the topics discussed which I did read and I could only smile to myself when the communication which really should not have included me had a phrase that suggested giving me “small money” for my efforts.

My amusement was in realising that for a good deal of my working life as a contractor, I was probably one of the highest paid in my team, not out of greed or covetousness but those were the market rates for people of my cadre.

A penny for my thoughts

Normally, I was grabbed off the market at any sometimes outrageous rate and once I had completed the project, I suddenly become too expensive to retain. It was never a problem then.

However, now, I see a different situation where I might well be slighted by the “small money” talk but then I do need the small money because that is what things have become. My erstwhile seething arrogance to some which was honestly just an expression of defying confidence that I know what I am worth and I am good value for money has become a situation where I live day to day on the generosity of hand-outs from friends and well-wishers.

If someone is willing to give me small money for my thoughts, the pennies do come in handy.