worKoan 10: Minding the Move

And so it came to pass in January of the new year, before the second semester of school started for Sonny that winter, Dualtone finally outgrew its small environs and moved to a bigger building across the street and up the hill. The move to larger quarters made a second shift no longer necessary. Sonny had to choose between quitting school or quitting work. It left him in an almost endless internal dialogue about which should be the prime mover in his life.

Bill wasn’t making the decision any easier. Before the move even transpired, he began telling Sonny what it meant for the woofer department. Instead of assembling only smaller drivers for automotive speakers, they would begin to build the bigger drivers for home speakers as well. He would become the foreman of a new and larger department. They would need to hire at least three people immediately, with another five added by mid-year. “Your responsibilities in the company will grow—as well as your salary,” Bill added potentiality to promise.

But Sonny’s American Studies classes were promising as well. Last semester he had taken one in Melville & Whitman in which the dualities of American culture were discussed as represented in the authors' individual works, Melville being the novelist of the negative and Whitman the poet of the positive. His professor had made it a point to congratulate him on his understanding after Sonny had written a paper on Moby Dick entitled “The Song of Not Myself.”

But it was Simon who had finally helped break the logjam in Sonny’s brain. “It seems like such a simple decision to me,” he said one day after Sonny had finished explaining the quandary he was facing. It had come to this, Simon thought: sharing my problems with a fool. He knew Simon wouldn’t have a clue, but it just made him feel better to talk to somebody about it. He was tired of keeping everything inside.

“Oh, really, Simon, and what exactly would that be?”

Simon grinned. He loved the fact that Sonny had come to him for help. “Don’t quit school. Don’t quit work. Just quit quitting.” Sonny rolled his eyes. Simon continued anyways: “I can’t believe you haven’t thought of this already. You could go to school somewhere else at nights.”

Sonny was awestruck! Sure, it wasn't exactly an original thought; in fact, it had occurred to him earlier, but he had dismissed it out of hand, becoming stuck instead between this rock and hard place. But now, hearing it from Simon, it made all the sense in the world.