Battleship

He stood on the battleship U.S.S. Alabama’s wet, wooden deck.  She had once ruled the seas, having fought valiantly in World War 2. She was mighty. She was powerful. But in the end, she wasn’t very nimble. And to add insult to injury, she was also expensive and vulnerable.  The very symbol of a nation’s strategic power had ended up as a museum piece.

The first part of his career he worked for a giant corporation that was like a battleship. It too was powerful. Thousands of employees worked in unison so it could rule the corporate seas. They knew that if they took care of the battleship, the battleship would take care of them. But a few years ago, things had begun to change.  He was too busy manning the big guns to notice it at first.  He was just doing “his job.” Smaller armed boats with new weapons had begun to challenge the battleship’s supremacy on the high seas.  His company had tried to shoot them out of the water with the big guns.  The small boats were too nimble.  The battleship couldn’t turn with them.  The captain decided to reduce the number of crew to cut operational costs to compete.  Eventually there was no one on board to fire the big guns.  The battleship limped along at half speed, a shadow of its former self.

On one of  the battleship’s final cruises, he had been tossed overboard.  It’s just something that sometimes happens when a ship hits a storm.  He inflated his life raft and focused on survival.

Those initial days after plunging overboard were the most frightening of his life. The waves tossed from white cap to white cap; he held on as tight as he can.  But eventually he managed to get rescued. And then he put his skills to work. He soon built his own small craft. He used his skills chart a new course for his destiny. And when he came across a challenge, he was nimble.  He had successfully navigated the seas of change.

His hand rested on one of the U.S.S. Alabama’s mighty 16-inch guns.  He looked across Mobile Bay and then back at the mighty gray lady.  He smiled.  The world had changed.  And unless you were a battleship, that wasn’t a bad thing.