Quickstep

The other day, a client asked me, "So why did you step down in 2004?"

As usual, I made no conclusive reply. The evidence is very clear. Read all my posts from August to October 2004, see what might have caused it, decide for yourself. I keep every bit of evidence from that time in a hard-copy file. Every bit. I was trained as a qualitative researcher, and I recorded many things. In twelve sets of files, too.

People might say things, but it is what they wrote that survives, and I will not publish it. Here, or anywhere else. Yet. And I have published nothing, have written no anonymous letters, and am occasionally furious (a sinful state, for which I am sorry) at the idea (conceived of, I am sure, by the ignorant and unreasonable) that I have done such things.

I never doubted my allegiances, my qualities, or my directions. I never lost respect for the respectable, or courage for the challenge. I have always been answerable in full for my own actions. I have always taken full responsibility. And I have never harmed my institution in any demonstrable way. I carry no burden of shame or guilt, because what God has forgiven and justified need not burden you once it is gone, and because sometimes there is no reason for it. This is what I call a holistic re-education.

But these clients keep asking questions like, "So why did you step down in 2006?"

The answers are the same.