 Hello,
I must be going
by
Tom Hammel
If parallel universes exist, then somewhere a
religion worships Groucho Marx — and every Sunday he refuses to
attend services and goes golfing with Harpo instead. Groucho got a lot of mileage out of those five words; his
unique talent for mixing the absurd with the ordinary entertained
millions. Behind that greasepaint mustache was a serious mind, and
Groucho surely recognized his words’ sweeping commentary on modern
life, circa 1930. And if
they were true then, what would he think of life today?
Last week, I was in London; this week I’m
in Toronto; next week it’s Vegas. And I have it easy — one of the people I met in London
averages four countries a week. In
a world where global cell phones, wireless e-mail and Internet are
essential, we need every gizmo we can get because we’re just never
there anymore. We were
there a while ago, we’ll be back there later, but we’re not there
now. Somewhere in between
lies our work and our lives.
Over my last seven years as editor of a
magazine serving construction tool and fastener distributors, I
visited job sites with distributors to meet their customers. I’ve taken job site photos where, in the same frame, the
distributor, the superintendent, his foreman and an equipment operator
were all on radios to somebody else. Before you can communicate with someone, you have to reach
them. And when you do, you’d better make it fast.
Now, here, as the new editor of
MRO Today,
I’m learning that the challenges facing manufacturers in the United
States are far more dramatic than those currently facing your
counterparts in construction. Yes,
your lives are tougher; your informational needs are more critical;
and you have less time to get it all done. Thus, our responsibility at
MRO Today to serve you as
effectively as possible is also more critical. To do that, we will be reviewing every aspect of
MRO Today and
conducting an extensive reader survey, and that’s just for starters.
If you have a moment to fire off a suggestion, I’d love to
hear it.
I’m thrilled to be
here. I’m looking forward to making many new friends and for the
chance to be even more valuable to old friends in this industry. Hello, it’s great to meet you; now I’ve gotta go pack.
This article appeared in the June/July 2005 issue of
MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2005.
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