Two Guys From Easton

Are you now thinking of the old department store chain that brought Sunday shopping to the Lehigh Valley? Nope. They were from Harrison. These two guys are men I worked with about thirty years ago at a Pfizer pigments plant in Easton.

I am thinking of them today because I answered a Facebook question “What is wrong with society today?”. I answered greed and lack of empathy. I left off one item that I would usually include, and that is too much machismo.

That brings me back to the two guys from Easton. They were maintenance supervisors in the Engineering Department. I am going to use their names because I am sure they have both passed away long ago. Ed Miller and Bill Keller. They were both very irascible, cranky, and difficult to deal with. They both ruled their departments with fear and intimidation and bullying. I had to deal with both of them often. Sometimes they needed something from me, but more often I needed something from them. Bill used to yell at me and ask why I can’t do more by myself. Ed used to call me a “gebrone”, which is Italian for I’m not sure what, but surely not something good. Trying times for this gentle, sensitive male. But I made it through.

Then, over a few years, something changed. I had to work with them much more often and spent a lot of time with them one on one. I learned something very valuable from that time of change. What I learned is that sometimes bluster and bullying is just a cover up for insecurities. Yes, Bill and Ed had feelings too. I am a good listener and I am sure that is why they both opened up to me. But I learned that Bill spent a great deal of time worrying about his wife’s health. Ed was devastated when he got demoted, but he was more hurt by the fact that his two former assistants stopped talking to him. Ed and Bill were both very human, hiding behind all that macho manly man crap.

I guess the real lesson is that none of us are entirely who we present to the world. We are all much more complicated than that. When we have to deal with people that we don’t particularly like, it is best to try to understand them and figure out what is beneath that mask. You may be surprised to find something totally unexpected. So here is to Ed and Bill and to the lesson they taught me many years ago. On a side note, that pigments plant is now being torn down. Buildings may go, but lessons remain.