There are two boardrooms. Both have a large conference table surrounded by a number of comfortable, adjustable office chairs. Whiteboards adorn the walls. Flipcharts stand in the front corners. Sharpies and dry erase markers of various colours are scattered around or lay in the trays. Some simpler chairs are pushed against the long walls and the back wall, furthest from the front.
BOARDROOM ONE:
In the first room, professionally dressed men and women sit in the big chairs around the table. The whiteboards are filled with diagrams and graphs. The flipcharts each have several pages filled and turned over, showing half-filled pages waiting to be completed. Some pages have been removed and spread on the table.
Laptops are open on the table in front of some members.
Energy is high.
Ideas are flying around.
Coffee and tea cups, thermoses, plates with crumbs and a cookie or two are scattered around the table.
A business suited man at the head of the table leans forward, pointing and gesticulating.
BOARDROOM TWO:
The second room is quiet, though not empty. People sit in the simple chairs pushed against the walls. Waiting. A few read a Book quietly. Others sit with eyes closed, heads tilted as if listening.
No one speaks.
Some thermoses sit next to empty cups on a tray beneath a window.
Peace reigns. Even so, energy fills the room.
I walk down the hall with a Man. As we approach Boardroom One, I expect Him to enter. But He passes by. “I’m not needed there,” He says.
We approach the door to Boardroom Two. He opens it and steps inside.
The people waiting within turn toward the door, faces wreathed in smiles.
Now the meeting can begin.
