The world of Stephen Brockelman: Memoir, Arts, Opinion
After a really long business day, grass can be amazingly relaxing.
After a long day grass helps me relax.
Grass as seen from our driveway. Passing by the mounds of tall grass is wonderfully soothing, quieting, and makes me feel, after my workday, finally at home. From time to time, I see a field mouse or two ducking under the cover of the plants. Their antics make me smile.
While we live in Baltimore City, or what @realdonaldtrump refers to as a “disgusting… rodent-infested mess,” I don’t see rats under the grass, but I suspect that I’d smile at them as I do the field mice.
Our driveway.
Contrary to what the current White House resident would have the world believe Baltimore is not as he describes it. Yes, there are rats in Baltimore; there are rats in every urban area in the United States. And Baltimore has issues around equal access to an excellent education, racial equality, an honest and transparent police department, income disparity, fair housing, more. So, does most every metropolitan area in the country.
Baltimore and its residents freely acknowledge our flaws, while #TrumpelThinSkin—the man in the White House—sees himself as absolutely perfect, the “greatest thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico,” the “chosen one.”
These are rough, tough, divisive times, we’re living in. But, we’re tough, and we’ll make it through this ugly moment. Hang in. Don’t hate little critters. And, please VOTE.
As a Sr. Writer at T. Rowe Price, I work with a group of the best copywriters around. We belong to the broader creative team within Enterprise Creative, a part of Corporate Marketing Services.
_____________________________________________
A long and winding road: My path to T. Rowe Price was more twisted than Fidelity’s green line. With scholarship in hand, I left Kansas at 18 to study theatre in New York. When my soap opera paychecks stopped coming from CBS and started coming from the show’s sponsor, Proctor & Gamble, I discovered the power of advertising and switched careers. Over the years I’ve owned an ad agency in San Francisco; worked for Norman Lear on All in the Family, Good Times, Sanford and Son, and the rest of his hit shows; and as a member of Directors Guild of America, I directed Desi Arnaz in his last television appearance— we remained friends until his death. In 1988 I began freelancing full time didn’t look back.
In January 2012 my rep at Boss Group called and said, “I know you don’t want to commute and writing for the financial industry isn’t high on your wish list, but I have a gig with T. Rowe Price in Owings Mills…” I was a contractor for eight months, drank the corporate Kool-Aid, became a TRP associate that August, and today I find myself smiling more often than not.
