Starting and stopping: When to give up? When to persevere? Who's to say, anyway?
Many years ago, I wanted to do something different, so I taught myself to play the harmonica. It was a bit arduous and I didn’t get that far, although I managed a passable rendition of Jingle Bells. After performing the song for my long-suffering colleagues, I set the instrument aside and have not picked it up since. Earlier still, I applied for a position as ‘policy analyst’ with the provincial women’s directorate. Though I didn’t really know what the job entailed, I thought the work would be a good fit for my communication skills and my politics, so I was pleased to get an interview. That pleasure evaporated in the face of questions about briefing ministers on complex matters and preparing contingency documents about hypothetical situations. I barely understood the questions, never mind was able to answer them; nonetheless, I was invited to complete the written portion of the assessment process. Those questions were equally opaque to me; after a valiant effort, I wrote a note s...