briansereno.com

I realize that I’ve been doing a significant amount of reminiscing of late, and today brings yet another opportunity to do so.  In what could be one of the final entries in the “where I was one year ago today” chapter, today I’ll briefly identify the striking differences, with one remarkable similarity, between December 8, 2008 and December 8, 2009.  One year ago today I made my triumphant return to work.  Having been sidelined for the duration of November and the first week of December of 2008, on the 8th of last December I was filled with nervous excitement as I searched for a way to make myself useful.  Ever-grateful to my coworkers for picking up the slack in my absence, I was honored to work for a company in which the empowered workforce covers for one another without complaint.  That is where the similarity between 12/8/08 and 12/8/09 lies.  Tonight, as NBA Commissioner David Stern, Hall of Famers Wes Unseld and Earl Monroe and our captain Antawn Jamison among others, spoke so glowingly of our late owner Abe Pollin at ‘Remembering Abe’, a public tribute to the man in the ‘House that Abe built’, I was reminded how fortunate I am to have been in his employ.  The differences however between today and 365 days ago were striking.  I worked today with a sense of purpose.  I was busy from the second I arrived until after I left, in fact.  Unlike last year, I didn’t have to wonder how to fit back in.  Unlike last year, catching-up wasn’t called for.  Today I was pridefully excited to be at work, paying tribute to a man that made it possible for me to miss five weeks of work last November, without a worry about rushing back to work, and armed with the best health insurance coverage that I never knew I had.  Thank you, Mr. Pollin.

GBM