I’d been back in my office for an hour and had already talked to my creative team about the pitch and how to go about it creatively when the receptionist called:
“Mr. Young, Cyril Murdock is here for you.”
“Call me Ray, Tanya. Mr. Young is my father. Show him in… or better yet, I’ll go get him. Give me a couple of minutes.”
Tanya was our new receptionist. She came to the interview wearing a lilac panama hat that perfectly reflected her bubbly personality. From that moment on Bob and I decided that she and her hat were exactly the type of first impression we wanted to create on anyone who walked into our agency.
Cyril Murdock was a philosophy professor of mine in college. As sometimes happens with good teachers, we established a relationship outside the classroom based on mutual intellectual respect. I remember going to him for advice concerning my endeavors in other courses. A brilliant and accessible man, he was always very helpful. He moved to our city a couple of years ago and we had renewed our friendship. At the time, I had sought his opinion on the syllabus for a college level course I was designing. I usually would go to his place when picking his brain about anything, so it was a surprise to have him pop in at my office that day. I went over to the reception area and there he was wearing one of his distinctive bow ties.
“Hi Professor, what a nice surprise,” I said as we shook hands.
“Hello Raymond, I’m sorry to show up unannounced.”
“Nonsense, it’s always a pleasure to see you. Mi casa es su casa.”
“Thanks a lot, I literally was in the neighborhood and thought that, maybe, it would be a good idea to stop by and give you in person my feedback on your course proposal.”
“Awesome. Would you like some coffee?” I asked.
“That would be great, thank you.”
We walked to the agency’s small kitchen area for some java. On the way, I asked him about Matthew. His face lit up as he started talking just like a grandfather would when telling stories about a grandchild.
See, Matthew was his pet ferret, and for those of you who have never had any experience with these animals, let me point out that the little rascals are very intelligent creatures with a knack for mischievous behavior, and don’t have much of a sense of fear. Actually, the professor had chosen that particular name so that its full name would be Matthew Murdock, like the fearless Daredevil character in the Marvel comics and movies. While we were getting our coffees, the professor told me about this new hiding place he had discovered where Matthew had stashed away a random set of shiny objects the little scoundrel had “stolen” from him.
Once in my office, Professor Murdock gave me his assessment on the course and asked me where I was planning to submit it. A notion I hadn’t given much thought to because the proposal was just something I wanted to have ready. A platform I could use if and when the time was right for me to start a teaching career. Doing it right away was not in the cards at that moment. I told him so and his response was somewhat odd:
“Raymond, let me tell you something about time. At some point in the past, the ancient Greek mixed up two of their mythological characters: Chronos, the personification of time, and Cronus the titan. One of the products of this amalgamation was the story that had Cronus devouring his offspring to prevent them from threatening his reign over the world. I’m sure you saw Goya’s painting of ‘Saturn devouring his son’(1) in one of your art history courses in college. I’ve always found it very disturbing, but it refers to that Cronus story which the Greeks believed represented the destructive ravages of time devouring all things.
“Ray, you should make time work for you, see it not as a barrier but as a tool for creation. My advice is: don’t wait. Go do this now. Besides, your take on creative thinking within the context of a world that is becoming more and more emotional is very relevant today.”
What I found odd was not his advice for me to pursue teaching right away, but the use of the concept of time precisely when, unbeknownst to him, I was involved in a business presentation that had to do with time planning. The coincidence was a little eerie.
The conversation with my old college professor served as a harbinger of things to come that day.
(1) NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: When I first saw this Goya painting in art history class I found it too gruesome and disturbing for my taste. That’s why I didn’t include a link to it in the story. Anyway, if after being warned you still want to take a look at it, you can see it here.